JOHN  HAY 
Author  and  Statesman 


By  LORENZO  SEARS,  L.H.D. 


The  History  of  Oratory  from  the  Age 
of  Pericles  to  the  Present 

The    Occasional  Address,   Its    Compo 
sition  and  Literature 

Principles    and    Methods    of    Literary 
Criticism 

American    Literature   in    the    Colonial 
and  National  Periods 

Seven  Natural  Laws  of  Literary  Com 
position 

Makers  of  American  Literature 
Wendell  Phillips,  Orator  and  Agitator 
John  Hancock,  the  Picturesque  Patriot 


JOHN   HAY 

Author  and  Statesman 

BY 
LORENZO  SEARS  ' 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 
1915 


COPYRIGHT,  1914 
BY  DODI),  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 


TO 

PROFESSOR  HARRY  LYMAN  KOOPMAN, 
A.M.,  LITT.D. 

WHO  AS  LIBRARIAN  OF  BROWN  UNIVERSITY 
PRESIDES  OVER  THE  JOHN  HAY  LIBRARY 


340212 


PREFACE 

IT  is  singular  but  not  entirely  exceptional 
that  John  Hay  and  his  career  should  have  re 
ceived  no  extended  treatment  within  a  decade 
after  his  death.  Doubtless  the  subject  is  dif 
ficult  by  reason  of  rare  qualities  and  of  far- 
reaching  diplomacy,  but  these  need  not  have 
prevented  a  plain  narrative  of  his  personal,  lit 
erary,  and  political  life.  In  the  lack  of  such  an 
account  thousands  pass  the  John  Hay  Memorial 
Library  or  read  in  its  rooms  without  understand 
ing  its  full  significance,  and  thousands  more  all 
over  the  land  are  equally  uninformed  as  to  the 
position  this  scholar  and  statesman  occupied. 
Many  know  that  his  name  is  the  most  distin 
guished  on  the  graduate  roll  of  Brown  Univer 
sity;  a  goodly  number  will  recall  the  authorship 
of  the  "Pike  County  Ballads"  and  other 
"Poems";  also  the  partnership  with  John  Nic- 
olay  in  "Abraham  Lincoln,  a  History."  Fewer 
will  remember  the  "Castilian  Days,"  the  anony- 


Preface 

mous  "Breadwinners,"  or  the  occasional  ad 
dresses  which  complete  and  crown  the  output  of 
John  Hay  as  a  man  of  letters. 

With  regard  to  the  statesman,  some  will  rec 
ollect  that  he  was  Secretary  of  Legation  in 
three  European  cities,  an  Ambassador  at  the 
Court  of  St.  James,  and  Secretary  of  State  of 
the  United  States;  but  not  many  will  recall  the 
capitals  and  kingdoms  to  which  he  was  sent, 
the  administrations  during  which  he  served,  and 
above  all  what  he  accomplished  for  his  country 
and  the  world  by  his  masterly  diplomacy. 

It  is  not  strange  that  acquaintance  with  the 
man  and  his  labours  is  limited.  He  took  no 
pains  to  leave  a  personal  record  of  himself  and 
his  work;  he  appointed  no  literary  executor; 
his  official  history  is  in  the  archives  of  govern 
ments  at  home  and  abroad.  What  has  been 
said  of  him  is  scattered  mainly  in  serial  publi 
cations  which  repose  on  the  shelves  of  public 
libraries  awaiting  the  visits  of  the  curious. 

From  these  and  more  remote  sources,  with  let 
ters  from  those  who  remember  him,  a_  sketch 
has  begn  attempted  which  shall  not  be  too  long 
for  the  busy  reader  nor  too  tiresome  for  one 


it 

*** '      Preface 

who  ijynot  attracted  by  the  intricacies  of  state* 
crafty  but  who  may  be  glad  to  know  the  main 
features  of  a  life  whose  value  to  the  nation  and 
the  world  should  be  more  widely  understood 
and  whose  example  in  private  and  in  public  de 
serves  study  and  imitation. 

Besides  the  author's  sources  of  information 
in  publications  contemporary  with  the  life  and 
upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Hay,  he  is  particularly 
indebted  for  letters  to  Mrs.  Alice  Hay  Wads- 
worth  of  Mount  Morris,  N.  Y.,  Dr.  A.  W.  King 
of  Redlands,  California ;  E.  W.  Menaugh,  Esq., 
Salem,  Indiana;  Charles  E.  Hay,  Esq.,  Spring 
field,  Illinois;  Hon.  Elihu  Root,  Washington, 
D.  C.;  Samuel  Mather,  Esq.,  Cleveland,  Ohio; 
C.  C.  Buel,  Esq.,  New  York  City;  Rev.  Edward 
M.  Gushee,  D.D.,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  and  Hon. 
Solon  W.  Stevens  of  Winchester,  the  last  two 
being  classmates  of  Mr.  Hay  in  Brown  Uni 
versity. 

Providence,  March,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    EARLY     YEARS     ,      , i 

II    FORMATIVE     INFLUENCES 23 

III  LITERARY   LABOURS 54 

IV  DIPLOMACY 74 

V    IMPRESSIONS  AND  CONCLUSIONS  ,   ill 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

John    Hay Frontispiece 

John  Hay  Memorial  Library   .     ...    Facing  page   i. 


ffl 
O 


EARLY  YEARS 

THE  boyhood  of  distinguished  men  is  not  al 
ways  prophetic  of  eminence.  In  school  and  on 
the  playground  there  may  be  little  to  raise  them 
above  their  fellows.  Superiority  there  may  be 
followed  by  later  inferiority.  Recall  the  pre 
cocious  pupils  of  the  grammar  school  and  the 
idols  of  the  athletic  field.  Are  they  at  the  head 
of  the  procession  now?  Possibly  a  few  will 
stay  there.  Others  will  exchange  places  with 
some  in  the  rear.  As  in  a  woodland  recently 
cut  over,  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  which  sap 
lings  will  rival  the  giants  of  the  primitive 
forest. 

To  discover  early  pre-eminence  is  the  tempta 
tion  of  biographers  who  undertake  complete 
accounts  of  illustrious  lives.     Such  discovery 
sometimes  rests  upon  later  achievements.     It  is 
•C    *    > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

prophecy  after  the  event,  based  upon  ancestry, 
environment,  or  as  a  final  resort  upon  a  talent 
for  industry,  to  some  the  equivalent  of  genius. 
In  any  case  it  is  hard  to  prevent  the  blaze  of 
ultimate  renown  from  illumining  early  years, 
and  sometimes  the  child  is  made  the  father  of 
the  man  by  an  unconscious  flare-back  of  glory, 
the  glow  of  sunset  irradiating  the  gates  of  the 
morning.  Sometimes,  too,  a  youthful  reputa 
tion  grows  like  a  myth  with  the  advancing  years 
and  accumulating  honours,  helped  on  by 
friendly  memories  and  generous  tongues  until 
the  actual  conditions  of  childhood  become  ob 
scure.  Yet  every  one  wishes  to  know  the  ante 
cedents  of  distinction.  Hence  the  tracing  of 
lineage  and  the  attempt  to  discover  reasons  for 
the  present  in  the  past,  and  for  the  man  in  the 
child.  Of  reasons  there  is  no  lack  in  this  in 
stance. 

"^      Near  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
one  John  Hay,  the  son  of  a  Scotch  soldier  of 


Early  Years 

fortune  who  had  served  in  the  army  of  the 
Elector  Palatine,  emigrated  from  the  Rhenish 
Palatinate  to  America,  settling  in  Virginia 
in  1750.  Of  four  sons  two  rendered  distin 
guished  service  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 
Adam,  one  of  them,  had  received  a  military 
training  in  Europe  and  here  won  the  favour  of 
Washington.  After  the  war  he  left  Virginia 
and  settled  in  Lexington,  Kentucky.  His  son 
John  at  the  age  of  fifty-five  became  convinced 

that  a  slave  ..state was  not  the  place  in  which 

to  bring  up  a  family,  and  accordingly  removed 
to  Springfield,  Illinois,  assisted  in  making  the 
river f  trip  by  Abraham  Lincoln.  Another 
afeffli;  his  son,  went  to  Salem,  Indiana.  He 
had  graduated  from  Transylvania  College  and 
later  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medi 
cine.  Settling  in  the  little  town  of  eight  hun 
dred  inhabitants  about  1830  he  practised  there 
for  ten  years.  He  married  Helen  Leonard,  a 
native  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  daughter 
•C  3  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

of  Reverend  David  A.  Leonard,  a  man  of  high 
repute  among  his  contemporaries  for  learning 
and  eloquence,  a  graduate  of  Brown  Univer 
sity  and  the  poet  of  his  class.  Four  children 
were  born  in  Salem:  Edward,  who  died 
young;  Augustus,  who  lived  until  a  few  years 
ago;  a  daughter,  Mrs.  Mary  Woolfolk,  still 
living  in  Warsaw,  Illinois;  John,  the  subject 
of  this  sketch,  who  was  born  October  8,  1838. 
A  fifth,  Charles,  resides  in  Springfield,  the  place 
of  his  birth.  In  1841  Doctor  Hay  removed  to 
Warsaw.  The  physician  was  regarded  as  "a 
man  of  profound  learning  and  broad  culture 
as  well  as  a  skilful  doctor;  an  honourable,  clean, 
and  brave  man.  During  an  epidemic  of  chol 
era  in  Salem  Doctor  Hay  never  faltered  in 
duty,  daily  and  hourly  facing  the  deadly  pesti 
lence,  ministering  to  the  suffering  victims' 
bodily  needs  and  comforting  the  spirits  of  the 
dying.  For  a  while  he  was  editor  of  the 
Indiana  Monitor,  published  in  Salem,  known  as 
-C  4  > 


Early  Years 

the  cleanest  paper  ever  published  in  the  county. 

"Mrs.  Hay  was  a  strong-minded  woman  in 
the  very  best  sense  of  the  term.  Her  mental 
endowments  were  equalled  only  by  her  modesty 
and  domestic  qualities."  1 

With  regard  to  his  forbears  John  Hay  once 
remarked:  "Of  my  immediate  progenitors, 
my  mother  was  from  New  England  and  my 
father  from  the  South.  The  first  ancestors  I 
ever  heard  of  were  a  Scotchman  who  was  half 
English  and  a  German  woman  who  was  half 
French.  In  this  bewilderment  I  can  confess 
that  I  am  nothing  but  an  American."  But  he 
was  a  type  of  the  American  who  is  to  inherit 
the  land,  whose  composite  character  may  ac 
count  for  creditable  attainment.  Believers  in 
the  inheritance  of  formative  traits  will  have  an 
explanation  of  characteristics  of  the  son  in  what 
has  been  said  of  his  father  and  mother. 

1  From  a  letter  of  Doctor  A.  W.  King  of  Redlands,  Cali 
fornia,  a  friend  of  the  family. 

<  s  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

The  quaint  old  town  of  Warsaw  was  to  be 
come  the  home  and  school  town  of  Hay's  boy 
hood.  There  were  features  about  it  which 
must  be  reckoned  to  the  credit  of  environment, 
as  some  circumstances  already  mentioned  must 
be  included  among  hereditary  influences.  The 
boy's  second  home,  statelier  than  the  cabin 
where  he  was  born,  stood  on  a  bluff  of  the 
Illinois  bank  of  the  Mississippi  half  way  up  the 
State,  commanding  a  broad  view  of  the  river 
and  the  Missouri  country  beyond,  whose  sun 
set^  were  recalled  in  after  years  as  "more  beau 
tiful  than  those  of  Italy.''  It  was  the  day  of 
river  boats  and  river  men  with  ways  of  their 
own,  to  be  commemorated  in  appropriate  verse 
by  a  lad  who,  as  his  sister  remembers,  "had  the 
habit  of  stringing  his  -words  together  into 
rhymes."  The  county  was  in  the  current  of 
emigration  from  the  East  and  the  Border  States 
to  the  remote  plains  and  the  Pacific,  and  espe 
cially  to  the  disputed  territories  where  the  con- 
-C  6  > 


Early  Years 

flict  for  freedom  or  slavery  was  to  be  waged. 
Practically,  Illinois  was  a  slaveholding  State 
with  4000  negroes  in  bondage  in  the  lower 
counties.  The  boy's  father  by  traditions  of  the 
femUy^jvas  _opposed_  to  slavery  and  the  anti-_ 
slavery  principles  which  the  son_imbibcd  had 
the  firmest  foundation. 

His  education  began  in  the  little  brick  school- 
house  which  is  still  standing,  spared  from  de 
molition  at  his  request.  Here  he  learned  what 
was  to  be  acquired  from  schoolmaster  Holmes 
and  his  successors  until  he  was  thirteen,  sup 
plementing  his  English  courses  by  the  study  of 
Latin  and  Greek  under  his  father's  direction.2 
When  he  was  twelve  he  had  read  six  books  of 
Virgil  and  some  Greek,  acquiring  meantime  a 
speaking ^  Joiowledg^_o£jGmnan  from  an  itin 
erant  instructor.  Though  not  remarkably 
strong,  his  health  was  good  and  his  disposition 
happy.  His  distinction  among  his  schoolmates 

2  A.  S.  Chapman  in  the  Century,  78;  444. 

•C  7  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

was  in  his  ability  to  absorb  knowledge^  and  a 
marvellously  retentive  memory  made  his  early 
acquisitions  something  more  than  contributions 
to  mental  discipline.  Reminiscences  of  the 
Thomson  school  speak  of  the  ease  and  fluency 
of  Hay's  translations,  his  knowledge  of  con 
struction,  and  of  his  advance  beyond  the  ordi-  . 
nary  boys  in  general  ^ducatign.  For  instance, 
he  had  learned  something  of  geology  from  the 
state  geologist,  enough  to  be  familiar  with  va 
rious  periods  and  extinct  forms  of  life.  That 
he  was  more  than  a  trilobite  himself,  buried  be 
tween  layers  of  books,  may  be  gathered  from 
this  added  testimony:  "We  all  remember 
John  Hay  at  that  time  as  a  red-cheeked,  black- 
eyed,  sunshiny  boy,  chuck  full  of  fun  and  devil 
ment  that  hurt  nobody.  He  spoke  German  like 
a  native,  having  picked  it  up  just  as  he  had 
gathered  an  inexhaustible  repertoire  of  river 
slang  from  the  steamboat  men,  which  served  its 
turn  later  on  in  the  Tike  County  Ballads,' 
-C  8  3- 


Early  Years 

which  I  have  never  liked,  for  the  reason  that 
they  never  suggested  John  Hay  to  me.  Only 
at  moments  of  riotous  mental  dissipation  would 
he  give  expression  to  such  stuff  as  appears  in  the 
'Ballads,'  and  then  to  work  off  his  superabun 
dant  humour."  3 

When  his  grammar  school  days  were  over  a 
larger  opportunity  was  offered  him  by  an  uncle, 
Colonel  Milton  Hay,  living  in  Pittsfield,  the 
county  seat,  a  lawyer,  politician,  and  man  of 
influence  in  the  region.  Offering  his  nephew  a 
home  in  his  own  house,  he  also  placed  him  in 
a  private  school  kept  by  a  Mr.  John  D.  Thom 
son  and  his  wife,  where  he  continued  prepara 
tory  studies  for  the  higher  education  which  both 
his  father  and  his  uncle  designed  for  him. 
Soon  he  was  pursuing  these  studies  still  further 
in  a  school  in  Springfield  which  was  later  known 
as  the  Lutheran  Concordia  College.  These  sev 
eral  schools  mark  the  period  when  the  new  set- 

3  W.  E.  Norris. 

•C   9   > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

tlements  of  what  was  then  the  Far  West  were 
mindful  of  many  a  Pittsfield  and  Springfield  in 
the  East  for  which  they  had  been  named,  and 
according  to  their  ability  they  were,  like  their 
Puritan  predecessors,  "not  going  to  let  good 
learning  perish  from  among  them." 

But  Western  colleges  had  not  yet  attained  the 
standard  of  excellence  which  they  have  since 
reached  and  Eastern  institutions  were  sought  by 
those  who  could  afford  the  expense.  Accord 
ingly  his  uncle  determined  to  send  John  to 
Brown  University.  Being  himself  a  Baptist,  he 
may  have  had  hopes  of  directing  his  nephew's 
inclinations  toward  the  ministry,  which  he  had 
at  one  time,  into  service  in  that  denomination 
rather  than  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  with 
which  the  boy  had  been  associated.  Other 
reasons  may  have  been  found  in  the  fact  that  his 
grandfather  had  graduated  from  Brown  in  1792 
and  that  Providence  had  been  his  mother's  early 
home.  In  any  case  he  came  East,  four  hun- 
•C  10  > 


Early  Years 

dred  miles  further  than  the  other  two  Western 
men  in  his  class  from  Cincinnati ;  the  rest  of  the 
class  being  from  New  England,  except  one 
from  New  York. 

His  preparation  qualified  Hay  for  entrance  as 
a  Sophomore  in  the  fall  of  1855,  in  the  class  of 
1 858.  He  therefore  escaped  whatever  were  the 
predecessors  of  the  present  first-year  indigni 
ties  of  College  Street  north  sidewalk  and  the 
skullcap  and  button.  However,  he  did  not  es 
cape  the  awful  mysteries  of  initiation  into  the 
Theta  Delta  Chi  Fraternity,  which  was  cele 
brated  with  unusual  ceremony  in  consideration 
of  a  glorious  triumph  over  rival  societies  that 
had  been  slower  to  discover  the  real  merits  of  the 
Far  Westerner.  It  is  said  that  their  howl  of 
disappointment  the  next  morning  as  Burdge  and 
Stone  escorted  their  captive  to  his  seat  in 
chapel,  and  the  responding  cheer  from  Theta 
Delta  delayed  devotional  procedures  at  the  desk 
and  interfered  sadly  with  them  over  the  rest  of 
•C  n> 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

the  house.  Already  in  the  few  weeks  that  the 
new  Sophomore  had  been  in  college  his  promise 
of  success  made  his  acquisition  a  famous  victory, 
whose  importance  subsequent  years  were  to  con 
firm  and  augment. 

After  the  Fraternity  came  the  Faculty.  In 
these  days  they  would  be  preceded  by  the  Nine 
and  the  Eleven,  but  football  and  baseball  had 
not  attained  pre-eminence  in  the  middle  of  the 
last  century.  Accordingly  President  Barnas 
Sears,  D.D.,  was  then  the  principal  figure  of  the 
academic  group,  followed  by  Alexis  Caswell, 
Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  and  Astron 
omy;  George  I.  Chace,  LL.D.,  Professor  of 
Chemistry  and  Physiology;  William  Gammell, 
A.M.,  Professor  of  History  and  Political  Econ 
omy;  John  L.  Lincoln,  A.M.,  Professor  of  the 
Latin  Language  and  Literature ;  Rev.  Robinson 
P.  Dunn,  A.M.,  Professor  of  Rhetoric  and 
English  Literature;  James  B.  Angell,  A.M., 
Professor  of  Modern  Languages;  Samuel  S. 


Early  Years 

Greene,  A.M.,  Professor  of  Mathematics  and 
Civil  Engineering;  Albert  Harkness,  Ph.D., 
Professor  of  Greek  Language  and  Literature; 
Nathaniel  P.  Hill,  Professor  of  Chemistry,  and 
Reuben  A.  Guild,  Librarian.  The  chair  of  the 
Theory  and  Practice  of  Agriculture  was  vacant, 
but  the  other  professorships,  including  the 
President's  course  in  Intellectual  and  Moral 
Philosophy,  show  what  was  open  to  the  student 
without  much  exercise  of  his  elective  affinities 
or  preferences  for  down-hill  grades  to  a  degree. 
What  was  required  furnished  a  good  foundation 
for  professional  or  business  careers  and  apprecia 
tion  of  attainments  in  fields  beyond  one's  own 
specialty.  If  John  Hay  had  taken  anticipatory 
courses  in  theology,  law,  medicine,  or  pedagogy 
would  his  diplomacy  have  been  as  masterly  as  it 
was  in  subsequent  years'?  Therefore  his  suc 
cess  need  cause  no  crowding  of  classes  in  Inter 
national  Law.  Diplomats,  like  poets,  are  born 
and  can  be  made  in  the  classroom  no  oftener 
"C  13  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

than  eminent  writers.  Indeed  it  was  as  one  of 
this  craft  that  young  Hay's  education  helped  to 
distinguish  him  among  his  fellows.  He  might 
have  recited  well  what  other  men  had  put  down 
in  books,  for  he  had  an  excellent  memory,  and 
might  have  used  it  to  obtain  the  valedictory 
which  fell  to  Joseph  Gilmore,  or  Arnold  Green's 
Salutatory,  if  these  were  then  the  rewards  of 
scholarship.  But  creative  work,  as  distinct 
from  recalling  the  statements  of  text-book  or 
lectures,  appears  to  have  been  the  forte  of  John 
Hay.  His  classmates  recognised  his  literary 
tastes  and  promise,  especially  in  what  is  the 
gift  of  but  one  in  a  thousand  penmen,  the 
ability  to  write  pleasing  or  appealing  verse,  and 
therefore  they  chose  him  as  the  poet  of  the  class. 
The  closing  lines  of  his  poem  were : 

"Where'er  afar  the  beck  of  fate  shall  call  us, 
'Mid  winter's  boreal  chill  or  summer's  blaze, 
Fond  memory's  chain  of  flowers  shall  still  enthrall  US, 
.Wreathed  by  the  spirits  of  these  vanished  days. 

•c  H> 


Early  Years 

Our  hearts  shall  bear  them  safe  through  life's  com 
motion, 

Their  fading  gleam  shall  light  us  to  our  graves; 
As  in  the  shell  the  memories  of  ocean 
Murmur  forever  of  the  sounding  waves." 

The  title  he  gave  it  was  "Erato:  a  Poem." 
It  was  436  lines  in  length  and  was  published  in 
pamphlet  form,  but  was  never  included  by  him 
in  his  collected  poems. 

Of  this  address  to  his  class  Howells  wrote 
forty-seven  years  later:  "To  say  it  was  a  class 
poem  is  sufficiently  to  characterise  it,  perhaps; 
and  to  add  that  it  was  easily  better  than  most 
class  poems  is  not  to  praise  it  overmuch. 
There  was  the  graceful  handling  of  a  familiar 
measure,  and  the  easy  mastery  of  the  forms 
which  a  young  writer's  reading  makes  his  sec 
ond  nature;  but  it  was  more  than  commonly 
representative  of  the  poet's  own  thinking  and 
feeling.  There  was  a  security  of  touch  in  it, 
though  there  was  not  yet  the  maturity  which 
early  characterised  his  prose,  and  which  is  pres- 
-C  i5  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

ent  in  such  marked  degree  in  his  paper  on  Ells 
worth,  the  young  captain  of  Zouaves  who  fell 
in  the  first  months  of  the  Civil  War." 

To  his  personal  characteristics  in  college 
tributes  have  been  given  by  one  and  another  of 
his  twenty-eight  classmates.  One  remembers 
him  as  "a  comely  young  man  with  a  peach 
bloom  face,  quiet  and  reserved,  with  a  thought 
ful  temperament,  yet  frank,  manly,  open- 
hearted,  and  a  most  delightful  companion,  de 
siring,  as  in  his  own  words,  fto  make  all  good 
men  his  well  wishers  that  some  may  grow  into 
friends,  who  are  the  sunshine  of  life.'  "  4  An 
other  recalls  his  "singularly  modest  and  retir 
ing  disposition;  but  withal  of  so  winning  a 
manner  that  no  one  could  be  in  his  presence, 
even  for  a  few  moments,  without  falling  under 
the  spell  which  his  conversation  and  companion 
ship  invariably  cast  upon  all  who  came  within, 
its  influence.  He  was,  indeed,  to  his  little  circle 

*  Harry  T.  Dorner. 

•C  »«3-. 


Early  Years 

of  intimates,  a  young  Dr.  Johnson  without  his 
boorishness,  or  a  Dn  Goldsmith  without  his 
frivolity."  5 

Another ^^emembers  that  "he  took  rank  at 
once  among  the  brightest  Toys  in  college,  and 
maintained  it  with  a  degree  of  ease  that  was  the 
envy  of  his^  classmates.  In  those  days  all  text 
was  memorised,  and  it  was  the  general  opinion 
that  Hay  put  his  books  under  his  pillow  and 
had  the  contents  thereof  absorbed  and  digested 
by  morning,  for  he  was  never  seen  'digging,'  or 
doing  any  other  act  or  thing  that  could  be  con 
strued  into  hard  study.  His  quick  perception, 
ready  grasp  of  an  idea,  and  wonderfully  reten 
tive  memory  made  a  mere  pastime  of  study." 
Still  another  7  pays  tribute  to  his  genial  disposi 
tion  manifested  as  an  "impromptu  poet  and 
punster,  full  of  rollicking  fun.  He  was  the  life 
of  social  occasions,  and  his  company  was  in 

5  William  L.  Stone. 

6  Norris  of  '57,  a  townsman  of  Hay's. 

7  A.  So  Chapman  in  Century,  78,  450. 

•C  '7  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

great  demand.  Yet  it  was  between  college  and 
public  life  that  his  friends  perceived  in  him  an 
undercurrent  of  religious  feeling,  and  he  ap 
pears  to  have  debated  the  subject  of  studying 
for  the  ministry.  When  his  family  wished  him 
to  take  up  the  study  of  law  he  said  to  a  friend, 
'They  would  spoil  a  first-class  preacher  to  make 
a  third-class  lawyer  of  me.'  " 

Another  valuable  tribute  from  a  living  class 
mate  8  says :  "When  John  Hay  entered  college 
he  was  not  far  from  seventeen  years  of  age. 
He  had  rosy  cheeks,  keen  dark  eyes  deeply  set, 
long  auburn  hair  cut  ofl  squarely  around  his 
neck,  and  a  well  developed  head  upon  a  slender 
body;  he  was  about  five  feet  five  inches  in 
height.  His  voice  had  no  nasal  twang  but  was 
rich  and  musical,  while  his  speech  and  de 
meanour  betrayed  the  child  of  a  home  of  refine 
ment.  He  made  no  haste  to  form  acquaint 
ances  and  seemed  shy  and  reserved  while  keenly 

8  Solon  W.  Stevens. 

-C  is> 


Early  Years 

observant  of  the  manners  of  others.  We  all 
learned  to  respect  and  admire  him,  and  in  the 
course  of  time,  in  some  instances,  acquaintance 
ripened  into  close  friendship.  In  his  student 
days,  John  Hay  was  not  an  ideal,  patient,  per 
sistent  college  grind;  he  did  not  need  to  be,  for 
nature  was  lavish  with  her  gifts  at  his  birth. 
He  was  a  genius,  not  erratic,  but  well  poised 
and  balanced.  He  could  grasp  and  retain  the 
substance  of  a  lecture  or  lesson  with  ease.  His 
mind  was  like  a  sponge,  absorbing  everything  at 
the  touch,  but  the  matter  could  not  be  squeezed 
out  unless  he  was  willing  to  let  it  go0  He 
cared  but  little  for  college  honours,  and  was 
no  contestant  for  prizes.  He  was  not  particu 
larly  brilliant  in  Greek  and  Latin  classics,  and 
was  indifferently  fond  of  mathematics.  In  the 
rhetoricjcmirses  jind^along  the  lines  of  English 
Li teratiire.he^was  easily  the  leader  of  the  class. 
Professor  James  B.  Angell  records  that  'his 
type  of  mind  was  one  of  great  modesty  and  of 
-C  19  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

marked  brilliancy.  I  used  to  say  he  was  the 
best  translator  I  ever  had  in  my  class,  having 
extraordinary  mastery  of  the  best  vocabulary  in 
our  tongue,  which  gives  such  a  charm  to  all  the 
writings  of  his  maturer  life  and  was  easily  dis 
cernible  even  then.'  He  had  a  poet's  tempera 
ment,  often  buoyant,  jocular,  and  witty,  and 
often  despondent  and  sad.  In  company  with  a 
group  of  congenial  spirits  he  was  jolly,  com 
panionable,  sometimes  satirical  and  always  the 
best  of  story-tellers,  but  back  of  this  there  was 
a  pathos  in  his  nature  which  found  relief  only 
in  felicitous  phrases  of  tenderness  and  affection. 
He  had  the  gift  of  expression,  and  when  he  had 
something  to  say  he  said  it  as  a  fascinating 
talker,  graceful  writer,  and  charming  poet. 
He  was  not  universally  popular  with  his  mates 
and  was  familiar  with  only  a  few.  He  was 
prone  to  be  reticent,  exclusive,  and  shy,  but  the 
few  who  were  made  happy  by  his  confidence 
were  held  in  the  bonds  of  the  strongest,  manly 
-C  2°  3- 


Early  Years 

friendship.  He  was  admired  for  his  genius, 
and  loved  for  his  nobility  of  character/^ 

The  following  list  of  the  class  of  1858  as 
printed  in  the  catalogue  of  that  year  is  of  inter 
est  as  containing  well  known  and  remembered 
names : 

Samuel  W.  Abbott,  Roland  F.  Alger,  C.  Ed 
win  Barrows,  Robert  B.  Chapman,  Edward  P. 
Chase,  Edward  L.  Clark,  E.  Washburn  Coy, 
James  F.  De  Camp,  Howard  M.  Emerson,  J. 
Henry  Gilmore,  Robert  I.  Goddard,  Merrick 
Goldthwait,  Arnold  Green,  Edward  M.  Gushee, 
Samuel  T.  Harris,  John  M.  Hay,  Leander  C. 
Manchester,  Francis  Mansfield,  Aaron  H.  Nel 
son,  Walter  B.  Noyes,  Joseph  H.  Patten,  Wil 
liam  B.  Phillips,  Henry  G.  Safford,  Samuel  G. 
Silliman,  J.  Lippitt  Snow,  Solon  W.  Stevens, 
William  L.  Stone,  Lyman  B.  Teft,  Samuel 
Thurber.  Hay  dropped  the  Milton  from  his 
name  later. 

In  the  lists  of  the  other  classes  are  names  of 
-C  21  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

men  who  became  eminent  in  various  occupa 
tions,  and  who  in  the  days  when  the  entire  body 
of  students  numbered  only  two  hundred  must 
have  been  better  acquainted  with  their  instruc 
tors  and  one  another  than  is  now  possible. 

Before  dismissing  college  matters  it  may  be 
added  that  academic  honors  awaited  John  Hay 
in  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  conferred  by 
Western  Reserve  in  1894,  Brown  in  1897, 
Princeton  in  1901,  Yale  in  the  same  year,  and 
by  Harvard  in  1902,  for  reasons  that  will  be 
apparent  later  in  his  career. 


II 

FORMATIVE  INFLUENCES 

AFTER  graduation  John  Hay  took  up  the  study 
of  law  with  the  uncle  who  had  sent  him  to  col 
lege  then  living  in  Springfield.  In  three  years 

he  had  completed  his  studies  and  was  admitted 

.  i  / 

to  the  bar  in  1861.  Meantime  an  influence  had 
been  encompassing  him  in  the  midst  of  his 
preparation  for  legal  pursuits  which  was  to  turn 
him  away  from  them  and  give  another  direction 
to  his  life. 

Milton  Hay's  office  adjoined  that  of  the  firm 
of  Lincoln  and  Herndon.  There  were  many 
spare  hours  in  the  days  before  Abraham  Lin 
coln  had  attained  eminence  at  the  bar,  and  there 
was  considerable  going  back  and  forth  between 
the  two  offices.  Besides,  Lincoln  gave  up 
many  evenings  to  instructing  the  younger  man 
-C  23  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

with  whom  he  had  established  cordial  relations. 
His  shrewd  judgment  of  character  discerned 
elements  that  were  not  needed  in  the  practice  of 
provincial  courts.  ^Moreover,  Hie  himself  was 
getting  involved  in  the  discussion  with  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  of  large  issues  which  were  going  to 
divide  the  nation.  Hay  heard  something  of 
them  in  the  law  offices  and  more  on  platforms 
here  and  there  throughout  the  State.  In  the 
last  year  of  Hay's  law  studies,  1860,  Lincoln 
was  nominated  to  the  Presidency  and  his  young 
friend  of  twenty-two  threw  himself  into  the 
campaign  with  the  devotion  which  came  from 
personal  attachment  and  belief  in  qualities 
which  had  not  yet  been  revealed  even  to  party 
leaders  so  clearly  as  to  himself  in  the  intimacy 
of  daily  converse.  And  when  Lincoln  was 
elected  to  the  highest  position  of  responsibility 
in  a  time  of  political  uncertainty  he  took  with 
him,  as  one  of  two  who  should  be  his  most  in 
timate  and  confidential  associates  and  private 
-C  24  > 


Formative  Influences 

secretaries,  the  young  friend  and  companion  of 
the  three  previous  years.  The  other  was  John 
G.  Nicolay,  proprietor  and  editor  of  the  Pitts- 
field  Free  Press,  who  had  rendered  important 
political  services  in  the  campaign. 

For  the  first  few  months  after  class  day 
memories  of  college  life  will  linger  like  the 
strains  of  a  favourite  song  just  finished.  John 
Hay  had  delivered  his  class  poem  and  had  gone 
home  not  to  return  to  Commencement,  then  held 
in  September.  Between  the  jollity  of  academic 
days  and  the  sober  work  that  was  before  him  it 
was  not  strange  that  the  versifying  habit  lin 
gered  on,  and  that  the  spirit  of  youth  should  per 
vade  it.  And  what  themes  could  be  nearer 
than  the  stories  of  river  and  plain,  of  the  heroes 
of  sand-bars  and  whisky-bars'?  They  would 
be  as  attractive  to  the  tame  East  as  a  Wild  West 
show  to  a  New  England  schoolboy,  and  the 
River  States  would  recognise  their  own  children. 
Therefore  when  the  recent  graduate  as  was  his 
-C  25  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

wont  strolled  along  the  banks  and  over  the 
bluffs  of  the  wide  river  or  over  the  broader 
prairie  he  took  what  was  nearest  him,  the  pilot, 
and  the  squatter,  the*  veteran  of  Vicksburg, 
Colonel  Blood  and  old  Judge  Phinn,  each  intent 
upon  the  same  "whisky-skin." 

There  was  a  homespun  belief  in  Providence 
in  one,  a  martyr's  sacrifice  in  another,  a  stand 
for  race  freedom  in  another,  and  for  personal 
rights — as  they  understood  them — in  two  more 
and  border  promptness  in  their  defence  accord 
ing  to  the  primitive  law  of  the  land  and  custom 
of  the  day  and  country.  The  six  short  poems  1 
taken  together  constitute  a  moving  picture  of 
frontier  life  which  has  been  attractive  not  only 
to  boys  with  cowboy  dreams  of  it  but  to  their 
elders  as  well,  and  even  to  cultivated  Europeans. 
When  long  years  afterward  Hay  appeared  in 
London  his  chief  interest  to  men  of  letters  was 

1  "Golyer"  and  "The  Pledge  at  Spunky  Point"  were  added 
after  the  first  edition  of  1871. 

•C  26  > 


Formative  Influences 

as  the  author  of  distinctively  American  verse, 
since  they  chose  to  connect  it  with  the  wild 
flavour  and  grotesque  wit  which  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  associate  with  everything  in  the 
new  land  since  the  Puritan  Period.  Nothing 
else  that  Hay  had  done  was  so  pleasing  in  their 
sight.  The  Academy  quoted  with  enthusiasm 
"Jim  Bludso"  and  "Little  Breeches"  but  forgot 
to  mention  the  monumental  Biography  of  Lin 
coln;  and  the  Spectator  discovered  nothing 
greater  than  the  representative  of  American 
humour  and  its  audacious  imagination.  So  of 
other  British  critics  who  hailed  Bret  Harte's 
"Heathen  Chinee,"  "The  Outcasts  of  Poker 
Flat,"  and  "The  Luck  of  Roaring  Camp,"  as 
representing  Yankee  life  and  literature;  which 
in  the  decade  subsequent  to  Hay's  "Ballads" 
had  moved  a  little  westward,  from  the  Mis 
sissippi  River  to  the  Pacific,  only  two  thou 
sand  miles.  But  what  matter  to  British  com 
prehension  of  our  national  growth  since 
•C  27  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

the  war  of  1812  when  it  saw  the  last  of  us*? 

It  was  once  said  that  after  his  later  literary 
achievement  and  his  residence  abroad  Hay  him 
self  became  ashamed  of  these  windfalls.  On 
the  contrary  as  late  as  1903  he  remarked  to  a 
friend,  George  Gary  Eggleston,  "that  he  was 
prouder  of  that  very  human  verse  than  of  any 
thing  else  he  had  ever  done."  2  As  to  the  pri 
ority  of  Hay's  Ballads  over  Harte's,  Mark 
Twain  took  pains  to  settle  the  question  in  1905, 
when  he  wrote: 

"Mr.  Hay  told  me  in  1870  or  '71  that  they 
were  written  and  printed  in  back  country 
papers,  before  Harte's.3  When  his  began  to 
sweep  the  country  the  noise  woke  Hay's  buried 
waifs  and  they  rose  and  walked."  Harte  thus 
advertised  Hay  better  than  he  could  do  it  him- 

2  Current  Literature  39:  132. 

8  Osgood  published  the  Ballads  in  the  spring  of  1871  col 
lected  from  various  periodicals.  Century  70:  792.  The 
"Heathen  Chinee"  was  published  in  the  Overland  Monthly 
in  Aug.  1870.  A  few  months  later  the  Ballads  appeared, 

•c  28  > 


Formative  Influences 

self.  Hay  was  not  pleased  to  be  called  an  imi 
tator  of  his  successor  in  ballad  writing.4  It  is 
one  of  the  uncertainties  of  contemporary  testi 
mony  that  Clemens  in  the  article  of  which  the 
preceding  is  a  fragment  said,  that  it  was  true 
that  in  later  life  Hay  wished  people  to  forget  the 
Ballads.  If  this  is  true  it  may  be  another  paral 
lel  instance  of  regrets  that  early  products  survive 
to  the  injury  of  later  achievement,  as  in  the  case 
of  eminent  writers  who  have  begun  as  humour 
ists;  Harte  himself  being  an  example  whose 
"Heathen  Chinee"  was  fished  out  of  a  waste 
basket  one  day  when  there  was  an  insistent  de 
mand  for  "copy"  and  nothing  else  to  meet  it. 
It  made  louder  calls  for  more,  which  higher 
verse  could  not  drown.  So  he  wrote  the  "Out 
casts,"  the  "Luck,"  and  the  rest  of  mining-camp 
ballads  until  England  absorbed  him  as  the  poet 
of  native  Americanism,  and  considered  that 
classic  verse  was  the  prerogative  of  Great 

*  Harper's  Weekly,  Oct.  21,  1905. 

•c  293- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

Britain.  Of  both  Hay  and  Harte,  and  perhaps 
Lowell,  it  was  true  that  they  could  furnish  di 
verse  wares  but  could  not  control  the  market; 
and  that  there  is  no  accounting  for  tastes  except 
by  the  freaks  that  seize  upon  the  best  regulated 
minds  as  a  relief  from  their  constant  regulation, 
a  cropping  out  of  aboriginal  instincts  and  a  re 
version  to  primitive  type.  Whatever  both  these 
pioneer  poets  of  the  frontier  may  have  thought 
of  their  wild  whimsies  in  maturer  years  they 
were  started  by  them  on  other  lines  more  satis 
factory  to  themselves  if  less  amusing  to  others. 

Hay  soon  found  that  he  had  a  reputation 
which  he  must  live  up  to,  but  not  in  the  man 
ner  of  Pike  County.  In  the  entrance  upon  a 
larger  life  with  President  Lincoln  his  outlook  be 
came  suddenly  national  and  cosmopolitan,  and 
so  did  his  verse.  He  had  written  his  "Prairie," 
the  last  of  the  kind,  three  years  before — unless 
the  two  additional  ballads  be  included.  Then 
must  have  followed  "Crows  at  Washington," 
-C  30  > 


Formative  Influences 

"The  Advance  Guard,"  "Liberty,"  "When  the 
Boys  Come  Home,"  "Northward,"  "God's 
Vengeance,"  "Guy  of  the  Temple," — war  songs 
in  as  many  moods,  inspired  by  what  he  saw  in 
camp  and  field.  They  were  a  notable  advance 
from  the  Ballads  and  symbolic  of  the  change 
that  new  associations  had  wrought  in  an  im 
pressionable  spirit. 

The  significance  of  these  associations  and  the 
removal  from  a  law  office  to  the  executive  man 
sion  would  be  great  to  a  young  man  of  ^twenty- 
three  at  any  time,  but  there  were  features  of  this 
transfer  that  had  more  than  common  impor 
tance.  The  prospect  in  his  Illinois  home  was 
for  nothing  better  than  slow  arrival  at  such  suc 
cess  as  his  uncle  had  attained  in  the  local  court 
of  a  country  town.  Even  the  office  of  Lincoln 
and  Herndon  was  not  so  crowded  with  clients 
that  there  was  no  time  to  talk  politics  and  tell  a 
story.  But  the  tidal  wave  of  Northern  senti 
ment  about  the  great  issue  of  the  century  which 
-C  3i  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

had  been  rising  for  forty  years  swept  around 
that  office  and  carried  one  of  its  occupants  to  the 
Capitol  to  be  a  nation's  leader  in  the  critical 
period  of  its  existence.  Its  life  was  as  uncer 
tain  as  that  of  the  new  leader  on  his  guarded 
way  to  Washington.  Nor  was  he  insensible  of 
the  sudden  elevation  which  had  come  to  him  in 
the  call  to  the  throne,  so  far  as  there  was  a 
throne  in  a  great  republic.  His  farewell  to  his 
townsmen  as  he  spoke  to  them  from  his  car  at 
the  then  dingy  station  was  his  last  farewell  as 
he  passed  to  immortal  fame. 

What  occurred  to  the  country  lawyer  and 
politician  happened  in  a  degree  proportioned  to 
his  age  and  experience  to  the  young  man  he  took 
with  him.  He  too  was  to  be  at  the  nerve  centre 
of  the  nation  in  its  fever  and  delirium ;  to  know 
something  of  its  statesmen,  its  chieftains,  its  sol 
diery;  its  policy,  its  business,  its  diplomacy- 
How  far  beyond  the  little  opportunities  of  his 
Sangamon  County!  It  was  the  year  of 
-C  S^  > 


Formative  Influences 

Europe,  worth  a  cycle  of  Cathay.  But  better 
than  this  was  the  opportunity  of  daily  converse 
with  the  man  who  was  growing  in  wisdom  and 
strength  and  fortitude  with  the  weeks  and 
months  of  thought  and  suffering.  The 
processes  by  which  one  conclusion  after  another 
was  reached  and  one  step  after  another  taken 
could  not  have  escaped  Hay's  observation. 
Nor  could  the  foresight,  self-control,  and  pa 
tience  of  his  chief  and  the  nation's  be  unknown 
to  the  intimate  friend  of  Lincoln. 

It  was  a  great  opportunity  for  a  recent  gradu 
ate.  His  early  duties  were  monotonous  and 
tiresome  as  an  amanuensis  and  copyist,  but  the 
papers  he  transcribed  were  in  some  instances 
material  for  future  historians  and  must  have 
been  a  part  of  his  own  education  for  the  larger 
career  which  was  before  him.  Nevertheless  he 
had  fond  memories  of  his  old  home  in  those 
first  weeks  and  wrote  to  a  townsman  who  had 
spoken  of  the  dulness  of  Warsaw:  "Warsaw 
•C  33  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

dull?  It  shines  before  my  eyes  like  a  social 
paradise  compared  with  this  miserable  sprawl 
ing  village  [of  Washington]  which  imagines  it 
self  a  city  because  it  is  wicked,  as  a  boy  thinks 
he  is  a  man  when  he  smokes  and  swears.  I 
wish  I  could  by  wishing  find  myself  in  War 
saw.  ...  I  never  before  was  so  anxious  to  see 
it  or  so  reluctant  to  leave  it.  It  is  a  good  thing 
to  go  home.  I  seem  to  take  on  a  new  lease  of 
life,  to  renew  a  fast  fleeting  youth  on  the  breezy 
hills  of  my  home.  I  feel  like  doing  a  mar 
vellous  amount  of  work  when  I  return,  and  the 
dull  routine  of  every-day  labour  is  charmingly 
relieved  by  vanishing  visions  of  grand  rivers, 
green  hills,  and  willowy  islands  that  float  in  be 
tween  me  and  my  paper.  And  sometimes  the 
pen  will  drop  from  tired  hands  and  the  desk 
will  disappear  and  the  annoyances  of  the  chan 
cery  court  will  be  forgotten  in  dreams  of  happy 
days  in  the  old  home,  lit  with  eyes  and  melodi- 
-C34  > 


Formative  Influences 

ous  with  the  voices  of  those  who  are  and  ever 

have  been 

A'  the  world  to  me — 

You  know  the  rest." 

It  is  not  easy  to  understand  this  attack  of 
homesickness  in  a  young  man  who  had  been 
away  from  home  during  three  academic  years 
unless  there  was  an  unmentioned  object  of  at 
tachment  alluded  to  in  the  last  four  words. 
But  this  must  be  left  between  the  two  friends. 

A  junior  secretary  would  be  likely  to  have 
laborious  days  in  the  early  years  of  the  war 
when  business  was  of  many  kinds  at  the  execu 
tive  mansion.  No  doubt  there  is  enough  to  do 
in  peaceful  times,  but  an  active  and  increasing 
army  brought  its  cares  and  correspondence  to 
the  commander-in-chief  and  his  official  assist 
ants  as  well  as  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  More 
over,  the  President  had  need  of  information  di 
rect  from  one  quarter  and  another  which  had 
•C  35  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

not  been  coloured  by  media  through  which  it 
had  passed  on  its  way  to  Washington  and  to 
send  messages  without  their  falling  into  hostile 
hands.  He  must  have  a  confidential  friend  in 
the  field.  The  one  he  knew  best  and  could  trust 
most  was  at  his  elbow.  Accordingly  John  Hay 
received  the  title  of  Colonel  on  General  Hun 
ter's  staff  and  was  in  the  field  on  special  serv 
ice,  although  remaining  an  assistant  secretary 
i until  the  President's  assassination.  He  thus 
came  to  have  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
entire  situation  at  the  Capitol  and  in  every  part 
of  the  country  better  than  any  other  man  of  his 
years  in  all  the  land. 

Later,  at  Stanton's  suggestion,  Lincoln  ap 
pointed  Hay  an  assistant  adjutant  general,  and 
he  served  in  that  capacity  for  some  time  in  the 
field.  On  one  occasion  he  was  sent  on  a  mission 
which  had  its  embarrassing  features,  however  it 
should  result. 

Horace  Greeley  in  the  summer  of  1864  de- 
-C  36  3- 


Formative  Influences 

cided  that  he  could  end  the  war  if  he  could 
negotiate  peace  with  Southern  emissaries  who 
were  in  Canada,  and  worried  the  President  into 
appointing  him  as  a  sort  of  envoy  extraordinary, 
against  his  judgment  but  for  politic  reasons. 
With  him,  however,  he  sent  Hay  as  his  own 
representative  to  Niagara  where  the  conference 
was  to  be  held.  It  turned  out  as  Lincoln  antic 
ipated,  a  fool's  errand  on  Greeley's  part,  who 
would  have  preferred  to  be  sole  witness  of  his 
own  failure.  It  was  years  before  he  forgave 
Hay  his  companionship.  If  peace  had  been 
made  on  the  terms  Greeley  was  willing  to  offer 
or  to  accept  both  he  and  Hay  would  have  re 
ceived  the  malediction  of  the  entire  North. 
Greeley  may  have  recalled  this  fiasco  in  subse 
quent  years  when  his  presidential  aspirations 
were  dampened;  but  Hay  does  not  appear  to 
have  suffered,  doubtless  because  of  his  repre 
senting  an  unwilling  executive  who  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  great  editor's  compromising 
-C  37  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

scheme,  a  man  whose  newspaper  ability  far  ex 
ceeded  his  statesmanship. 

Recognition  of  Hay's  worth  during  his  four 
years'  association  with  Lincoln  had  not  been 
confined  to  the  President.  As  Secretary  of 
State,  Seward  had  seen  much  of  the  young 
messenger  who  had  won  his  elder's  kindly  re 
gard  and  sincere  respect.  Accordingly  after 
the  war  was  over  he  sent  for  him  and  offered 
him  a  place  in  the  Legation  at  Paris  which  hap 
pened  to  be  vacant.  It  was  an  opportunity  to 
see  a  larger  world  and  international  business. 
Before  he  could  take  his  departure  from  the 
man  who  had  been  as  a  father  to  him  the 
companionship  of  seven  years  at  home  and  in 
Washington  was  abruptly  ended  by  the  assas 
sin's  bullet. 

Hay  and  Robert  Lincoln  were  chatting  in 

one  of  the  rooms  of  the  White  House  on  the 

,  fatal  Friday  night.     As  soon  as  they  heard  the 

sad  tidings  they  hurried  to  the  house  opposite 

-C  38  3- 


Formative  Influences 

Ford's  Theatre  where  the  President  had  been 
carried  and  were  in  the  room  when  he  died. 
Next  to  the  calamity  to  the  son  was  the  weight 
of  it  to  the  young  man  who  had  been  as  a  son 
to  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  had  lost  his  best 
friend  and  counsellor;  ^Iso  his  position  with 
the  change  in  administration.  It  was  fortu 
nate  that  the  Department  of  State  had  provided 
for  him. 

It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  value 
of  the  years  with  President  Lincoln  to  the 
young  man  of  his  choice.  He  saw  what  was 
hidden  from  many  under  a  drollery  assumed  to 
cover  heaviness  of  heart.  The  depths  of  its 
anxiety  and  gloom  were  known  to  the  compan 
ion  of  wakeful  hours.  His  vision  of  an  hon 
est  mind  and  compassionate  heart  was  clear  and 
the  impress  of  a  great  soul  moulded  the  life 
that  was  to  carry  out  the  principles  and  pur 
poses  of  his  foster-father. 

The  Legation  at  Paris  was  Hay's  primary 
-C  39  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

school  in  diplomacy  for  two  years,  in  which 
time  he  also  acquired  a  speaking  knowledge  of 
the  French  language  as  a  medium  of  inter 
national  communication.  They  were  years  of 
study  in  many  branches.  When  he  returned 
home  Seward's_eyes  were  still  upon  him  and 
the  estimate  of  his  fitness  for  a  foreign  post 
so  high  that  he  sent  in  his  name  as  Minister 
to  Sweden ;  but  Johnson,  who  had  turned  Dem 
ocrat,  had  uses  for  all.  vacancies.  There  was 
one  at  Vienna,  however,  in  the  gift  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  and  thither  Hay  was  sent  as 
charge  d'affaires.  It  was  a  third-class  mission, 
to  be  sure,  but  it  was  the  next  step  in  an  or 
derly  progress  toward  better  positions.  The 
city  itself  was  an  admirable  place  in  which  to 
study  diplomacy.  Notable  treaties  had  been 
concluded  there  and  important  questions  set 
tled,  as  between  Charles  VI  and  the  Infanta 
of  Spain  concerning  the  kingdom  of  the  two 
Sicilies;  between  Napoleon  and  the  Austrians 
-C  40  > 


Formative  Influences 

after  their  defeat  at  Wagram;  the  Great  Con 
gress  of  Vienna  met  to  order  the  affairs  of  Eu 
rope  after  Napoleon's  overthrow  and  to  restore 
to  each  kingdom  such  a  share  of  power  as  each 
could  get  in  the  redistribution  after  the  Cor- 
sican's  disturbance  of  the  diplomatic  gameJ 
These  are  but  a  fraction  of  the  conferences 
which  have  been  held  in  the  Austrian  capital — 
a  modern  city  upon  ancient  foundations — the 
history  of  which  would  be  an  education  in 
diplomatic  art;  as  its  industries,  its  galleries, 
its  museums,  its  university  founded  in  the  four 
teenth  century,  a  public  hospital — the  largest 
in  Europe — are  all  so  many  educational  influ 
ences  to  an  open  mind.  What  they  were  to 
this  young  man  of  twenty-five,  holding  a  place 
that  commanded  entrance  to  everything  worth 
his  while,  can  best  be  understood  by  those  who 
have  occupied  similar  positions  in  their  early 
manhood.  Something  can  be  gathered  from 
the  successive  portraits  that  were  secured  from 
•C  4i  > 


<&x 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

time  to  time  and  have  been  reproduced.  Each 
one  shows  an  added  experience  of  more  than 
common  advantages,  of  which  the  continuous 
phase  is  a  serene  self-command  and  the  knowl 
edge  of  large  affairs. 

After  two  years  in  Austria  he  was  trans 
ferred  to  Spain  in  1869.  It  was  not  a  promo 
tion,  but  the  change  brought  new  opportuni 
ties  and  those  attractions  which  have  appealed 
to  one  and  another  of  the  cultivated  representa 
tives  of  the  nation  from  Irving  onward  to 
Hardy.  To  each  one  there  have  been  new 
features  to  portray  and  new  scenes  to  depict. 
They  have  not  been  discouraged  by  the  "Al- 
hambra"  and  its  early  successors.  Hay  him 
self  with  his  love  of  letters  and  delight  in  com 
position  could  not  resist  the  inspiration  of 
Spain's  scenery  and  history,  its  social  and  po 
litical  life.  Its  art  and  its  architecture,  its 
palaces  and  cottages,  its  castles  on  mountains 
and  in  the  air,  its  halls  and  its  homes,  its  cities 
-C  42  > 


Formative  Influences 

and  villages,  its  nobles  and  peasants,  all  had 
their  charm  for  him.  Therefore  when  spring 
blossomed  he  began  to  write  a  series  of  articles 
for  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  which  were  published 
in  a  book  five  years  later,  now  known  as  "Cas- 
tilian  Days."  It  was  the  evening  pastime  of 
a  ready  writer,  noting  the  high  lights  of  the 
present  with  its  unchanging  inheritances  from 
the  past.  The  old  had  for  him  the  interest  of 
the  new  because  there  had  been  nothing  like 
it  in  France  or  Austria.  Madrid  he  found 
more  cosmopolitan  than  the  rest  of  the  penin 
sula,  since  every  province  was  represented  and 
every  government  had  its  official  at  the  capi 
tal;  but  aside  from  politics  and  public  affairs 
a  family  and  social  life  not  over-strenuous  had 
their  pleasant  contrasts  to  the  laborious  haste 
of  American  days  and  nights.^  Nobody  was  in 
a  hurry  and  there  was  always  time  for  a  nap 
and  a  cigar.  Frugality  permitted  leisure,  and 
idleness  was  to  all  better  than  wages  earned, 
-C  43  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

unless  in  a  government  position  on  five  hundred 
a  year. 

The  most  noticeable  characteristic  of  the 
nation,  pervading  all  its  provinces  and  hab 
its  of  life,  he  found  to  be  its  changeless  conform 
ity  to  ancient  custom.  The  people  live  and  act 
according  to  the  traditions  that  have  been  main 
tained  for  centuries.  It  matters  not  if  the  rea 
sons  for  doing  something  and  for  the  particular 
way  of  doing  it  have  been  superseded  by  bet 
ter  things  and  ways  beyond  the  Pyrenees  or 
over-sea;  this  is  the  only  procedure  in  the  Pen 
insula  because  it  was  the  only  one  in  the  Dark 
Ages.  The  watchman  called  the  hours  and 
let  in  residents  at  his  convenience  in  the  days 
of  Charles  the  Sixth  and  Philip  the  Third, 
therefore  he  continues  to  make  neighbours  wait 
their  turn  in  his  inconsequential  absence  and 
no  complaint  is  made.  A  contractor  from  Eng 
land  brought  wheelbarrows  with  him:  the  men 
poised  them  on  their  heads,  twirled  the  wheels 
-C  44  > 


Formative  Influences 

a  while  and  then  went  for  their  baskets  to  carry 
sand  as  their  ancestors  had  for  a  thousand  years. 
Mules  are  driven  tandem  through  the  streets 
because  ages  ago  these  were  narrow.  The 
Spaniard's  signature  is  the  flourish  at  the  end 
of  it,  a  fashion  dating  from  the  time  when  he 
could  write  nothing  more.  When  a  hundred 
years  since  some  people  who  had  seen  cleaner 
cities  tried  to  have  Madrid  deodourised,  the 
savants  of  the  city  reported  that  the  air  from 
the  mountains  was  so  clear  that  it  needed  the 
admixture  of  reeking  streets  to  fit  it  for  human 
breathing.  It  is  probable  that  they  would 
have  missed  the  indoor  savour  of  their  homes; 
for  as  the  heathen  Moors  washed  daily  a  Chris 
tian  ought  to  bathe  next  to  never.  So  when 
the  cleanly  infidels  were  driven  out  of  Granada 
the  abominations  of  the  public  baths  were  de 
stroyed.  Highborn  ladies  preferred  to  varnish 
their  countenances  with  the  white  of  an  egg  to 
washing  them.  These  are  instances  of  con- 
•C  45  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

servatism  which  belong  to  externals.  A  deeper 
conformity  to  belief  and  ceremony  held  the 
"  nation  in  a  grasp  as  unflinching  as  its  instru 
ments  of  the  Inquisition.  In  Church  and  State 
there  was  the  same  looking  backward.  The 
King  stuck  to  his  precedents  and  the  clergy  to 
their  ceremonies  and  both  held  together  against 
heretics  as  the  fathers  had.  There  was  no  new 
thing  in  all  the  land.  An  unquestioning  cre 
dulity  and  blind  service  were  all.  Out  of  these 
sprung  the  honour  that  did  not  mean  honesty 
even  but  only  fidelity  to  king  and  priest.  Vir 
tue  was  a  thing  of  expediency.  Self-conceit 
and  readiness  to  quarrel  on  any  occasion  com 
pleted  the  Spaniard's  outfit.  He  could  live  on 
his  pride  and  the  Church  would  save  his  soul 
if  he  left  it  to  her  and  her  bidding,  asking  no 
questions.  If  he  did  not  do  it  another  pro 
vision  would  be  made  for  him  in  a  damp  or 
very  dry  place,  by  rack  or  fire.  Philip  the  Sec 
ond  and  his  monks  had  a  dance  of  death  to- 
-C  46  > 


Formative  Influences 

gether  for  ten  years  when  40,000  were  killed, 
but  not  a  heretic  remained.  Yet  his  people 
loved  Philip  and  upheld  him. 

This  tradition  of  royal  supremacy  and 
priestly  authority  Hay  thought  would  lose  its 
grip  upon  the  nation,  but  it  still  has  the  under- 
hold.  Politics  has  a  better  hope. 

Other  features  of  Spanish  life  had  a  passing 
interest  for  him,  mingled  with  revulsion  some 
times,  as  at  bull  fights.  He  found  the  feast- 
days  of  the  saints  and  the  idle  days  of  the  peo 
ple  a  pleasant  contrast  to  the  strenuous  life  he 
had  left  at  hpjiie,  and  the  simple  enjoyments 
of  the  populace  full  of  colour  and  merriment. 
Higher  diversion  awaits  those  who  gather  the 
harvest  of  art  in  the  matchless  galleries  of 
Madrid  and  Seville,  whose  inheritance  de 
scended  from  the  days  when  a  flood  of  gold 
swept  art  treasures  from  all  sides  to  remain 
long  after  the  gold  had  vanished.  The  great 
est  collection  in  the  world,  it  cannot  be  sur- 
-C  47  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

passed  until  it  is  itself  broken  up.  It  is  equally 
great  in  the  eminence  of  the  masters  who  have 
contributed  to  its  wealth.  Raphael,  Rubens, 
Titian,  Tintoretto,  Paul  Veronese,  Valasquez, 
and  Murillo  have  left  their  legacies  here,  the 
single  oasis  in  a  desert  of  gloomy  memories  and 
an  island  in  a  sea  of  blood. 

After  art,  architecture  left  its  unworldly  im 
pressions  linked  with  the  higher  reaches  of  faith 
and  hope,  as  the  cathedral  of  Toledo,  or  with 
denials,  as  the  unadorned  Escorial,  built  amid 
the  desolation  of  a  cinder  field.  The  Miracle 
Play  called  him  back  to  the  Middle  Ages  and 
primitive  instruction;  the  proverbs  of  an  un 
lettered  folk  were  the  homely  wisdom  that  had 
grown  in  nutshells  for  ages,  but  not  largely  in 
the  nation's  literature.  Cervantes  secured  a 
pilgrimage  to  Alcala  one  summer  day,  the  home 
of  Ximenez'  great  university  with  its  eleven 
thousand  students  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
what  is  of  more  consequence,  the  birthplace  of 
•C  48  > 


Formative  Influences 

the  author  of  "Don  Quixote,"  where  a  tired 
old  man,  living  upon  a  crust  tossed  to  him  by 
one  Don  Lemos  in  this  garret  and  that,  wrote 
the  one  book  that  stands  for  Spanish  literature 
for  most  readers  and  then  left  a  weary  world 
with  Shakespeare  on  the  23d  of  April,  1616. 

In  the  closing  chapters  the  author  comes 
down  from  Spain's  lugubrious  past  to  observe 
its  legislature  in  1870  and  contrast  it  with  the 
way  it  used  to  be  governed  by  monk  and  mon 
arch.  It  was  a  field-night  when  there  was  to 
be  some  oratory  and  more  talk  over  a  bill 
"of  the  character  which  your  true  Spaniard 
loathes  and  scorns.  It  is  a  bill  for  raising 
money.  Of  course  a  parliament  of  office-hold 
ers  recognise  the  necessity  of  the  treasury  be 
ing  filled.  But  they  usually  prefer  to  let  the 
Finance  Minister  have  his  own  way  about  fill 
ing  it,  theirs  being  the  more  seductive  task  of 
emptying  it.  So  that  financial  matters  are 
usually  discussed  in  the  inspiring  presence  of 
•C  49  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

empty  benches.  But  to-night  every  available 
man  is  in  his  place.  The  government  is  greatly 
alarmed  in  regard  to  the  passage  of  the  bill." 

The  air  of  antiquity  which  hangs  about 
everything  Spanish  is  found  in  its  modern  as 
sembly  when  "Ruiz  Gomez,  evidently  fresh 
from  the  reading  of  a  Congressional  Globe  of 
thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  rebuked  Mr.  Castelar 
for  his  apathy  in  financial  matters,  informing 
him  that  to-day,  in  the  United  States,  Adams, 
Jackson,  Clay,  and  Madison  are  much  more  in 
terested  in  questions  of  tariff  and  slavery  com 
promise  than  in  Michael  Angelo  and  the  Par 
thenon!"  One  can  imagine  the  difficulties  be 
setting  the  American  Legation  in  dealing  with 
such  a  government  in  1870  and  later.  But  its 
retrospective  habit,  like  the  customs  of  the  peo 
ple,  furnished  endless  amusement  to  a  man 
whose  sense  of  humour  was  as  keen  as  Mr. 
Hay's,  as  his  own  expression  of  it  affords  con 
tinual  and  delightful  surprises  to  his  reader, 
-C  50  > 


Formative  Influences 

breaking  out  as  the  story  runs  on  like  flashes 
along  an  electric  trolley-wire.  Of  an  energetic 
gesticulator  in  this  debate  who  was  hammering 
a  mahogany  table  he  said,  that  the  Ministry 
yielded  to  his  argument — to  save  the  furniture. 
He  has  a  few  informative  sentences  on  the 
absence  of  conscience  in  political  Spain.  Not 
only  will  evil  be  done  that  good  may  come  but 
infamies  will  be  committed  to  attain  equally 
infamous  ends.  To  dissimulate  is  wisdom,  can 
dour  is  folly,  and  to  speak  what  is  in  one's 
mind  is  idiocy.  Insincere  themselves,  they  ex 
pect  falsehood  from  others.  A  Spanish  Minis 
ter  was  disgraced  for  believing  John  Tyler 
telling  the  truth  in  the  interest  of  Spain  and 
slavery.  The  wiseacres  of  Madrid  were  confi 
dent  that  he  wanted  to  steal  Cuba.  In  dis 
charging  obligations  also  the  American  has  an 
opinion  of  the  nation  that  must  have  reminded 
him  of  an  occasional  acquaintance  at  home. 
"They  will  at  first  deny  the  debt,  they  will 
-C  5i  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

next  make  an  argument  on  the  law,  and  they 
will  end  by  silence  and  shameless  delay.  The 
bayonet  is  not  always  a  sufficient  persuader. 
They  would  often  rather  fight  than  pay." 
With  a  dishonest  government  robbing  them  at 
every  turn  the  people  take  care  that  it  shall 
get  as  little  as  possible,  and  he  is  greatest 
among  them  who  can  smuggle  best.  So  with 
lack  of  principle  in  rulers  and  of  faith  in  the 
masses,  the  political  life  of  the  nation  stagnates, 
while  its  religious  life  was  paralysed  by  the  axe 
and  rack  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  will  be 
long  in  recovering. 

With  a  chapter  on  the  Necessity  of  the  Re 
public  closes  a  most  interesting  book  upon 
Spain.  It  has  the  deliberation  that  cannot  be 
looked  for  in  a  tourist  hurrying  from  city  to 
city.  The  author  living  among  the  people,  ac 
credited  by  his  own  government,  saw  phases  of 
society  and  aspects  of  diplomacy  which  the 
traveller  would  be  obliged  to  pass  over.  Be- 
-C  52  > 


Formative  Influences 

sides,  the  story  is  told  with  fairness  to  the  na 
tion's  past  and  fidelity  to  what  was  its  present 
forty-four  years  ago.  It  is  good  literature  as 
well  as  faithful  description. 


•-C  53 


Ill 

LITERARY  LABOURS 

IN  1870  Mr.  Hay  resigned  his  place  with  the 
Spanish  Legation  and  sailed  for  New  York. 
Whitelaw  Reid,  who  had  been  a  war  corre 
spondent  in  Hay's  Washington  days,  had  risen 
to  become  managing  editor  of  the  Tribune. 
He  knew  of  his  friend's  expected  arrival  and 
meeting  him  at  the  landing  took  him  to  the 
Union  League  Club  to  dine.  There  he  must 
have  learned  of  Hay's  purpose  to  practise  law 
in  Illinois.  If  he  had  other  plans  for  his 
friend  he  was  not  likely  to  announce  them  then 
and  there.  He  proposed  an  after-dinner  stroll 
down  to  the  Tribune  office.  Looking  over  the 
telegrams  he  found  an  important  despatch. 
The  foreign  editor  happened  to  be  away  and 
he  turned  to  Hay  and  said,  "Sit  down  and  write 
-C  54  3- 


Literary  Labours 

a  leader  on  this  for  to-morrow."  He  could  not 
well  refuse.  The  article  was  good  enough  to 
pass  with  Horace  Greeley,  his  adversary  out 
of  the  Canadian  episode  of  six  years  before. 
Mr.  Reid  asked  him  to  stay  a  week,  a  month, 
and  then  to  be  one  of  the  editors.  And  so  Mr. 
Hay  was  diverted  from  his  home  and  law  to 
New  York  and  journalism.  The  place  came  to 
him  without  seeking  when  he  had  other  pur 
poses.  He  kept  it  when  there  was  the  editor- 
in-chief  s  antagonism  to  overcome.  He  con 
quered  by  the  excellence  of  his  work  and  held 
Mr.  Greeley's  friendship  till  the  day  of  the  lat- 
ter's  death.  He  used  to  say  that  Hay  was  the 
most  brilliant  writer  who  had  ever  entered  the 
office.  For  the  benefit  of  all  brilliants,  recall 
ing  Greeley,  it  should  be  added  that  his  manu 
script  was  a  model  of  neatness  and  legibility. 

The  appointment  on  the  Tribune  staff  of  a 
man  without  the  experience  by  which  such  a  po 
sition  is  obtained  was  a  testimony  to  singular 
-C  55  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

ability.  It  could  not  be  a  warrant  of  success 
that  he  had  lived  at  the  White  House  or  in  for 
eign  courts.  Nor  is  journalism  a  matter  of 
verse  or  description.  In  Hay's  instance  it 
was  a  phase  of  the  versatile  talent  which  could 
be  employed  in  many  directions  with  similar 
success.  Already  it  appeared  as  if  his  achieve 
ment  was  to  be  in  the  field  of  literature,  despite 
the  practical  affairs  of  daily  life  and  the  prob 
lems  of  politics  which  demanded  his  attention  in 
newspaper  work. 

It  is  probable  at  that  time  that  he  regarded 
the  opportunities  of  journalism  which  were  of 
fered  him  in  1870  as  of  more  value  than  any 
literary  openings  presented.  Horace  Greeley 
had  made  his  paper  a  great  power  in  the  North. 
Thousands  of  people  had  waited  for  the  daily 
or  weekly  Trybune,  as  they  called  it,  not  only 
for  information  but  for  their  opinions  on  pub 
lic  affairs.  Its  circulation  was  immense,  its  in 
fluence  powerful  during  the  war  years.  But 
-C  56  > 


Literary  Labours 

when  Hay  joined  the  staff  there  was  need  of 
fresh  forces  to  hold  the  paper  to  its  traditions. 
Greeley  was  looking  for  the  presidential  prize 
at  the  hands  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  in 
1872  received  the  nomination  in  opposition  to 
General  Grant,  but  failed  of  election,  and  died 
in  November  of  that  year.  The  Tribune  had 
an  opportunity  to  recover  its  standing  under  the 
surviving  management,  who  saw  not  only  its 
privilege  but  the  need  of  improving  it. 

To  John  Hay  his  five  years  of  service  afforded 
the  means  of  acquaintance  wi th the  leading  men- 
of  the  time.  Everything  worth  knowing  came 
into  the  ear  of  the  nation  hour  after  hour;  its 
ruling  ideas  and  characters  were  weighed  and 
values  were  assigned  with  the  fearlessness  that 
impersonality  gives.  And  yet  the  performance 
of  the  anonymous  writer  also  was  known  by 
those  who  were  behind  the  screens,  and  some 
times  by  outsiders,  who  managed  to  convey 
their  appreciation  to  the  secluded  penman. 
-C  57  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

He  soon  became  recognised  as  a  brilliant  edi 
tor  and  secured  a  wide  and  influential  acquaint 
ance  among  the  men  who  had  come  into  promi 
nence  since  the  war.  Statesmen,  diplomatists, 
jurists,  scientific  men,  and  authors — representa 
tives  of  all  classes  that  have  a  word  with  the 
public  through  the  press — came  into  his  field  of 
observation  from  the  right  side  and  the  wrong 
side,  affording  views  not  always  intended. 

In  the  last  year  ,of  Mr.  Hay's  connection 
with  the  Tribune,  1875,  ne  married  Miss  Stone, 
the  daughter  of  Mr.  Amasa  Stone,  a  man  of 
wealth  in  Cleveland,  Ohio.  The  following 
year  he  removedto  Ohio,  wherejhe  engaged  in 
business.  _This  was  another  change  of  occupa 
tion,  this  time  in  a  direction  which  he  would 
not  have  chosen  as  the  line  of  least  resistance, 
but  his  usual  adaptability  served  him  and  the 
interests  intrusted  to  him  for  four  years.  Dur 
ing  this  period  of  waiting  for  something  suited 
to  his  capacities  he 'made  the  acquaintance  of  a 
-C  58  > 


Literary  Labours 

group  of  men  who  made  Ohio  a  ruling  State 
in  the  Union.  Garfield,  Hayes,  McKinley,_ 
Hanna1  and  others  were  friends  worth  having, 
who  would  not  be  likely  to  overlook  merit  be 
cause  it  was  modest  when  the  day  for  its  recog 
nition  should  arrive.  Mr.  Hayes  was  the  first 
to  reach  the  presidential  chair  and  chose  Mr. 
Evarts  as  his  Secretary  of  State,  who  had  Fred 
erick  Seward  as  his  assistant  until  failing  health 
compelled  his  resignation. 

In  looking  for  a  successor  it  was  agreed  by 
the  principals  that  John  Hay  was  the  one 
man  for  the  place.  It  was  difficult  to  persuade 
him  to  accept  it.  At  first  he  declined,  but 
after  an  interview  with  Mr.  Reid  he  consented, 
and  served  the  Department  of  State  through 
out  the  remainder  of  Mr.  Evarts'  term.  He 
took  lessons  in  diplomacy  at  close  range,  which 
would  be  useful  to  him  by  and  by.  Possibly 
he  was  coming  on  as  fast  as  he  wished  to.  He 
was  only  thirty-eight;  he  had  no  need  of  the 
-C  59  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

salary;  he  was  well  established  in  Washing 
ton,  where  he  had  built  an  elegant  house;  and 
there  were  others  who  had  made  sacrifices  for 
the  party  and  expected  a  share  in  the  distri 
bution  of  spoils.  If  the  chief  position  in 
the  Cabinet  had  fallen  to  him  it  would  have 
been  a  recognition  of  unadulterated  worth 
hardly  to  be  expected  after  the  disputed  elec 
tion  of  1876,  when  William  M.  Evarts  was  the 
principal  counsel  for  the  Republican  party  be 
fore  the  Electoral  Commission  which  decided 
for  Hayes  instead  of  Tilden  by  185  to  184,  al 
though  Tilden's  plurality  of  the  popular  vote 
was  250,970  over  Hayes. 

His  successor,  Mr.  Garfield,  desired  Mr. 
Hay  as  a  confidential  adviser  who  should  not 
be  hampered  with  the  responsibilities  of  of 
fice  in  the  Cabinet,  but  should  give  his  coun 
sel  with  regard  to  the  duties  of  the  Executive. 
A  private  secretaryship  alone  could  comprehend 
such  service.  It  did  not  appeal  to  Mr.  Hay's 
-C  60  > 


Literary  Labours 

sense  of  personal  independence  in  the  presiden 
tial  chair,  modified  by  the  opinions  of  the 
Cabinet  alone.  Garfield  had  said  that  he  had 
no  pride  of  opinion,  and  if  his  Cabinet  could 

control  him  let  them  do  so.     At  the  same  time 

•* 

he  sought  for  ability  in  his  advisers  rather  than 
harmony  alone  among  them. 

There  was  always  a  call  for  John  Hay  on 
the  right  hand  and  on  the  left.  It  was  a  ques 
tion  which  was  the  louder.  There  was  no 
doubt  which  was  the  more  constant  and  con 
tinuous.  Diplomacy,  like  all  public  service, 
was  a  thing  of  administrations.  If  Tilden,  for 
instance,  had  been  allowed  his  popular  major 
ity  Hay  would  not  have  been  appointed  a 
Democratic  Secretary  of  State's  assistant. 
His  ability  would  have  been  overlooked.  That 
was  at  the  disposal  of  political  fortune  and 
our  electoral  system.  Possibly,  therefore,  he 
regarded  his  diplomatic  talent  as  Milton  did 
his'  prose — a  left-hand  accomplishment.  At 

•C  $1  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

least  it  was  this  in  the  uncertainty  of  its  em 
ployment,  though  not  in  its  exercise. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  was  the  impulse  to 
write.  He  had  known  what  this  was  for 
twenty  years.  For  five  years  he  had  known  its 
most  exacting  exercise  in  the  demands  of  a 
daily  journal.  Accordingly,  when  the  call 
came  again  from  the  Tribune  office,  this  time 
to  the  chair  of  the  editor-in-chief,  he  knew  what 
were  the  demands  of  the  position,  its  responsi 
bilities,  and  its  rewards.  For  one  thing,  a  sal 
ary  of  $5,000,  which  was  considered  large  at 
the  time,  but  as  he  had  no  need  of  it  possibly 
he  valued  more  other  compensations  of  a  less 
material  nature  such  as  come  to  the  editor  of 
a  metropolitan  journal  and  have  already  been 
enumerated  in  part.  Added  to  these  is  a 
dictatorship  whose  influence  extends  far  be 
yond  the  office,  where  a  word  is  dropped 
of  suggestion,  caution,  or  direction,  to  ripple 
•C  62  > 


Literary  Labours 

out  in  widening  circles  over  a  whole  nation. 
Whatever  the  attractions  which  journalism 
had  for  Hay  there  was  always  before  him  one 
great  purpose  which  he  had  regarded  as  some 
thing  more  than  a  literary  undertaking.  It 
could  not  have  been  long  after  the  death  of 
Lincoln  that  his  foster-son  determined  to  write 
his  life,  or  perhaps  it  would  be  more  accurate 
to  say,  that  before  this  it  was  determined  while 
Lincoln  was  alive  that  his  life  should  be  writ 
ten  by  those  who  were  best  qualified.  He 
could  see  that  many  would  undertake  so  promis 
ing  a  theme;  he  knew  that  no  one  better  than 
himself  could  present  the  Lincoln  of  the  Re 
public.  Yet  there  were  circumstances  which 
made  it  advisable  that  this  privilege  be  shared 
with  another  in  such  a  way  that  his  work  could 
not  be  identified  by  an  ordinary  reader.  At 

1  Newspaper  work  after  all  was  only  moderately  attractive 
to  Mr.  Hay.  He  used  to  say  to  younger  men  that  "Journal 
ism  is  a  good  mistress  but  a  bad  wife." 

•C  63  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

best  it  would  be  an  undivided  half,  of  a  monu 
mental  tribute,  to  be  sure,  but  like  all  collabora 
tion,  with  blurred  borders  and  blended  masses 
of  colour  and  fabric.  Mr.  Nicolay  might 
naturally  have  the  same  consciousness  of  sur 
render,  but  the  sacrifice  was  for  both;  or  rather 
it  was  made  that  the  friend  of  both,  who  had 
taken  them  with  him  to  be  his  daily  compan 
ions  for  four  years,  should  lose  nothing  that 
either  could  contribute  to  a  worthy  memorial. 
The  preface  to  the  ten  volumes  is  a  frank  decla 
ration  of  their  joint  work.  There  are  separate 
sections  written  by  each,  but  no  key  to  the  dis 
tribution  except  such  internal  evidence  as  a 
shrewd  critic  may  discover.  Every  means  that 
mutual  revision  could  furnish  was  applied  to 
the  text,  and  every  pains  taken  to  prevent  the 
reader  from  saying,  Lo,  here  is  Nicolay,  and 
Lo,  there  is  Hay.  Sometimes  the  wish  must 
have  come  to  both  that  the  credit  of  so  great 
an  achievement  might  fall  to  one  of  them,  since 
-C  64  > 


Literary  Labours 

one-half  the  labour  would  have  brought  either 
more  than  half  the  renown.  Therefore  it  is  to 
their  greater  glory  that  each  sank  his  identity 
in  making  a  composite  portrait  which  is  the 
more  excellent  for  the  work  of  both. 

Its  publication  began  as  a  serial  in  the  Cen 
tury  Magazine  in  November,  1886,  and  closed 
early  in  1890.  The  authors  said  of  it:  "We 
began  to  prepare  for  it  in  war  years  and  for 
the  execution  of  the  plan  after  return  from  Eu 
rope.  We  have  devoted  to  it  almost  twenty 
years  of  almost  unremitting  assiduity;  we  have 
aimed  to  write  a  sufficiently  full  and  absolutely 
honest  history  of  a  great  man  and  a  great  time, 
and  we  claim  that  there  is  not  a  line  in  all 
these  volumes  dictated  by  malice  or  unfair 
ness.  We  have  derived  the  greatest  advantage 
from  the  suggestions  and  corrections  which 
have  been  elicited  during  the  serial  publication 
and  beg  to  make  our  sincere  acknowledgments 
to  the  hundreds  of  friendly  critics  who  have  fur- 
•C  65  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

nished    us    with    valuable    information.  .  .  . 

"We  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  intimately  before 
his  election  to  the  Presidency.  We  came  from 
Illinois  to  Washington  with  him,  and  remained 
at  his  side  and  in  his  service — separately  or 
together — until  the  day  of  his  death.  His 
correspondence,  both  official  and  private,  passed 
through  our  hands;  he  gave  us  his  full  confi 
dence.  We  had  personal  acquaintance  and 
daily  official  intercourse  with  Cabinet  Officers, 
Members  of  Congress,  Governors,  and  Military 
and  Naval  Officers  of  all  grades  whose  affairs 
brought  them  to  the  White  House.  It  is  with 
the  advantage,  therefore,  of  a  wide  personal 
acquaintance  with  all  the  leading  participants 
of  the  war,  and  of  perfect  familiarity  with  the 
manuscript  material,  and  also  with  the  assist 
ance  of  the  vast  bulk  of  printed  records  and 
treatises  which  have  accumulated  since  1865, 
that  we  have  prosecuted  this  work  to  its  close. 

"We  are  aware  of  the  prejudice  which  ex- 
-C  66  > 


Literary  Labours 

ists  against  a  book  written  by  two  persons, 
but  we  feel  that  in  our  case  the  disadvantages 
are  reduced  to  the  minimum.  Our  experiences, 
our  observations,  our  material,  have  been  for 
twenty  years  not  merely  homogeneous — they 
have  been  identical.  Our  plans  were  made 
with  thorough  concert;  our  studies  of  the  sub 
ject  were  carried  on  together;  we  were  able  to 
work  simultaneously  without  danger  of  repeti 
tion  or  conflict.  Each  has  written  an  equal 
portion  of  the  work;  the  text  of  each  remains 
substantially  unaltered.  It  is  in  the  fullest 
sense,  and  in  every  part  a  joint  work.  What 
ever  credit  or  blame  the  public  may  award  our 
labours  is  equally  due  to  both." 

In  the  history  of  literature  there  have  been 
many  collaborated  works,  but  none  more  inter 
esting  than  this  in  the  association  of  two  young 
men  with  the  greatest  man  of  their  time,  in  the 
most  critical  period  of  a  nation's  life,  with  the 
early  design  of  writing  a  monumental  biog- 
-C  67  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

raphy,  and  the  constant  preparation  during  ten 
years,  and  the  continuous  labour  of  ten  years 
more  in  writing  it.  The  ten  volumes  which  re 
sulted  are  a  fitting  memorial  to  their  subject 
and  a  worthy  testimonial  to  their  writers. 

It  would  be  gratifying  to  be  able,  for  the 
present  purpose,  to  attribute  them  all  to  Mr. 
Hay,  but  if  his  half  only  had  been  published  the 
world  would  have  said  that  it  was  an  achieve 
ment  sufficient  for  the  literary  renown  of  any 
biographer.  However,  it  is  not  a  work  to  be 
estimated  by  its  volume  alone.  Its  quality 
makes  it  a  classic.  It  was  received  as  such  by 
the  best  criticism  at  the  time  of  its  publication. 
Qualifications  had  to  be  found  in  order  to  es 
tablish  critical  acumen,  but  they  gathered 
around  the  question  of  how  far  history  and  bio 
graphy  should  blend  in  such  a  work.  In  this 
instance  it  was  impossible  not  to  have  a  back 
ground  of  events  on  which  a  person  who  was  the 
leading  actor  in  them  should  be  portrayed. 
•C68  3- 


Literary  Labours 

And  if  there  were  to  be  reasonable  limits  to  the 
biography  of  this  leader,  the  liability  would  be 
extreme  to  neglect  other  men  who  had  a  large 
share  in  affairs  military  and  civil.  So  also  other 
writers  might  have  given  more  space  to  some 
topics  and  less  to  others,  to  the  possible  dispro 
portion  of  a  story  which  had  the  judgment  of 
two  instead  of  one.  Taken  all  together  the 
consensus  of  opinion  pronounced  the  work  a 
most  valuable  contribution  to  the  historical  and 
biographical  literature  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury.  Perhaps  trie  Best  endorsement  of  this 
general  opinion  is  the  primacy  the  work  con 
tinues  to  hold  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  its 
publication,  when  the  subject  of  it  has  not 
ceased  to  interest  writers,  as  it  probably  will  not 
for  a  century  to  come.  It  will  be  a  genius,  or  a 
pair  of  surpassing  ability,  who  will  supplant 
this  standard  biography. 

In   addition   to   his   poems,    the   "Castilian 
Days,"  and  his  half  of  the  "Life  of  Lincoln" 
•C  69  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

there  were  waifs  and  estrays  which  ought  not  to 
be  overlooked  because  they  were  scattered  along 
the  years.  There  was  the  paper  on  Ellsworth, 
the  young  captain  who  fell  among  the  first  vic 
tims  of  the  Civil  War,  a  personal  tribute  of  the 
kind  which  admiring  friendship  can  give  with 
justice  amidst  the  restraint  and  reserve  of  grief. 
"The  Mormon  Prophet's  Tragedy"  belongs  to 
the  frontier  life  which  so  many  have  attempted 
to  depict  and  so  few  have  faithfully  portrayed, 
but  which  is  delineated  with  masterly  accuracy 
by  one  whose  sympathies  were  with  his  people 
of  the  plains.  Then  there  was  "The  Breadwin 
ners,"  which  met  with  exceptional  success,  but 
was  never  acknowledged  by  him  nor  yet  posi 
tively  denied,  his  first  and  last  venture  in  fiction 
— an  early  note  of  the  coming  springtime  of  so 
cial  betterment,  or  a  herald  voice  of  trial  by 
combat  between  forces  now  mustering. 

In  all  these  adventures  with  pen  and  ink  he 
gave  proof  in  diverse  ways  that  if  he  had  chosen 
-C  ?o  > 


Literary  Labours 

authorship  as  a  sole  profession  he  would  have 
attained  an  eminence  of  which  his  friends  would 
have  been  proud.  As  it  was,  he  seemed  in  sev 
eral  periods  to  be  looking  with  interest  at  the 
hand  which  pointed  down  the  Writers'  Road, 
and  to  be  contemplating  the  delights  of  creative 
work,  of  undisturbed  occupation,  and  even  of 
modified  gratification  in  reflections  which  criti 
cism  produces,  like  a  prism  with  greater  or  less 
divergence  by  refraction.  For  those  who  are 
pleased  with  his  verse,  or  diverted  by  his  essays, 
or  above  all  absorbed  in  the  chapters  of  his 
tribute  to  Lincoln  there  will  always  be  regrets 
that  the  heritage  of  his  production  was  not 
greater,  that  the  best  of  what  he  did  leave  is 
practically  anonymous;  and  that  if  it  should 
ever  be  otherwise  the  water-mark  of  partner 
ship  must  be  stamped  upon  it  by  his  own  choice. 
More  books,  however,  there  could  not  be,  be 
cause  as  he  looked  down  the  path  of  Literature 
there  was  another  on  the  other  hand  marked  Di- 

•c  71  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

plomacy.  He  was  not  strongly  inclined  to  take 
it;  he  certainly  did  not  seek  it  for  its  emolu 
ments.  It  seemed  rather  to  bend  towards  him 
and  to  draw  him  down  its  vistas  with  irresistible 
attraction.  Still,  it  was  not  a  strange  departure 
from  the  current  of  his  life.  He  had  already 
served  an  apprenticeship  in  Paris,  Vienna,  and 
Madrid  as  Secretary  of  Legation.  He  had  also 
seen  the  home  side  of  foreign  relations  under 
President  Hayes  as  Assistant  Secretary  of  State 
within  the  period  of  writing  the  Life  of  Lincoln, 
in  which  he  had  taken  an  increasing  interest  in 
national  affairs.  But  on  account  of  political 
awards  to  be  distributed  the  full  Secretaryship 
of  State  could  not  be  assigned  him  just  yet.  It 
was  well  for  him  to  be  allowed  to  finish  his 
share  of  Lincoln's  Life  in  peace. 

Before  his  work  was  completed  a  Democratic 

President  was  elected,  and  of  course  a  Secretary 

of  State  belonging  to  the  same  party  was  at 

the  head  of  that  Department  for  the  next  four 

-C  72  > 


Literary  Labours 

years.  The  Republican  President  Harrison, 
who  succeeded  Mr.  Cleveland,  said  that  Hay 
was  a  good  fellow  but  there  was  no  politics 
in  him,  had  his  friends  to  consider  during  his 
single  term  of  office,  as  did  his  immediate  pre 
decessor  and  successor  when  he  attained  to  a 
second  term.  It  was  1896  when  it  expired 
and  Mr.  Cleveland  surrendered  the  presidency 
to  Mr  McKinley. 


•C73> 


IV 
DIPLOMACY 

WILLIAM  McKiN LEY  was  one  of  the  good 
friends  with  whom  John  Hay  was  associated 
during  his  five  years'  residence, ia^ Cleveland, 
Ohio.  He  had  been  in  Congress  for  seven 
terms  from  1876  to  1891,  when  he  was  elected 
Governor  of  his  native  State  and  again  in  1893. 
By  1896  he  had  attained  to  the  Presidency. 
During  his  years  in  Washington  the  friendship 
between  the  two  became  intimate.  In  the  days 
of  democratic  administration,  Mr.  Hay  believed 
that  his  friend  would  be  the  next  candidate  and 
that  he  would  be  successful.  — Aftd  John  Hay 
would  have  been  Secretary  of  State  if  William 
McKinley  had  not  incurred  political  obliga 
tions  which  must  be  met  by  first-class  awards  in 
Washington.  There  was,  however,  a  vacancy 
•C  74  > 


Diplomacy 

in  the  London  Embassy,  and  no  one  was  so  well 
qualified  to  fill  it  as  his  friend  Hay.  Accord 
ingly  he  was  sent  to  the  Court  of  St.  James,  and 
thus  made  the  head  of  the  diplomatic  corps 
abroad. 

At  once  he  had  an  opportunity  to  meet  a  diffi 
cult  situation.  The  Spanish  war  had  broken 
out  in  the  first  term  of  McKinley's  administra 
tion.  All  Europe  was  inclined  to  recommend 
America  to  confine  herself  to  her  own  coasts 
and  let  foreign  peoples  alone.1  Even  in  Eng 
land  the  upper  classes  became  unfriendly  after 
the  destruction  of  the  Maine ,  to  some  extent,  if 
not  to  the  degree  of  hostility  manifested  in 
the  Civil  War.  That  the  Continental  Powers 
could  not  draw  England  into  a  joint  demon 
stration  off  the  Cuban  coast  was  largely  due  to 
the  diplomacy  of  the  United  States'  Ambassa 
dor.  Much  also  was  due  to  his  personality. 

1  On  the  features  of  our  international  position  see  Chapter 
viii  of  "American  Foreign  Policy  by  a  Diplomatist,"  p.  183. 

-C  15  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

He  was  no  stranger  in  a  strange  land.  In  Eng 
land  and  at  home  he  had  met  men  distinguished 
in  letters  and  politics  who  were  ready  to  wel 
come  him  with  cordial  approval.  He  was 
familiar  with  the  usages  of  hall  and  court,  of 
legislation  and  diplomacy.  His  quick  judg- 
ment  and  unfailing  tact  reached  beyond  regu 
lated  observance  to  the  emergencies  of  every 
occasion  and  valuable  friendships  multiplied. 
Even  Her  Majesty  exchanged  an  autograph 
and  photograph  for  his  photograph  and  auto 
graph. 

The  value  of  diplomacy  to  a  nation  is  vari 
ously  estimated  even  in  the  halls  of  Congress. 
The  hasty  judgment  of  the  unthinking  is  apt 
to  regard  it  as  an  office  to  be  filled  by  persons 
who  have  missed  of  promotion  at  home  or 
whose  presence  there  is  as  inconvenient  to  rulers 
as  was  that  of  "Junius"  or  Sir  Philip  Francis 
when  he  was  sent  to  India  to  fill  a  position  of 
honour  and  profit  to  himself  for  the  peace  of 
•C  76  > 


Diplomacy 

George  III  and  his  Ministry.  Only  a  few  now 
believe  that  "an  ambassador  is  a  clever  man  sent 
abroad  to  lie  for  his  country,"  according  to  Sir 
Henry  Wotton,  and  still  fewer  that  he  is  hon 
ourably  expatriated  for  the  good  of  his  native 
land.  These  are  as  antiquated  views  of  diplo 
macy  as  those  formulated  by  Ancillon  and 
Count  de  Garden  for  the  necessity  of  it,  based 
on  the  conviction  that  "whoever  can  do  us  harm, 
wishes,  or  will  sometime  wish,  to  injure  us  and 
is  our  natural  enemy,  and  whoever  can  injure 
our  neighbour  is  our  natural  friend.  These  are 
the  pivots  upon  which  all  international  inter 
course  turns."  With  this  belief  goes  the  dogma 
that  injury  consists  in  taking  away  territory  and 
trade,  power  or  position  on  the  one  hand,  or  on 
the  other  that  advantage  arises  from  expansion 
and  acquisition,  commercial  prosperity  and  a 
higher  place  in  the  parliament  of  the  nations. 
No  higher  principle  is  here  implied  than  a 
supreme  regard  by  nations  for  their  interests, 
•C  77  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

and  the  chief  concern  of  governments  is  to  guard 
and  promote  them.  ^Reduced  to  its  plainest 
terms  the  formula  is  to  be  written  in  the  simple 
and  undiplomatic  words,  Keep  what  you  have 
got  and  get  what  you  can.>J> 

The  earliest  means  employed  by  neighbour 
ing  tribes  was  war;  the  next,  conference.  "My 
neighbour's  land  belongs  to  me  because  I  have 
eaten  him,"  said  the  primitive  man  of  the  Pacific 
Isles,  and  his  peaceful  successor  answered  his 
confessor's  exhortation  to  forgive  his  enemies, — 
"Bless  your  soul,  I  have  no  enemies:  I  have 
killed  them  all."  This  was  the  short  and  easy 
method  of  the  strong  with  the  weak  until  a 
stronger  came  into  the  field.  When  he  did,  the 
weaker  cast  about  for  some  less  perilous  method 
of  adjusting  differences  and  sent  messengers  to 
arrange  terms  satisfactory  to  the  stronger.  By 
the  sixteenth  century  it  was  found  convenient  to 
keep  embassies  in  residence  at  foreign  courts  to 
speak  for  their  home  governments  without  delay 

-c  78  > 


Diplomacy 

and  to  observe  indications  of  hostility  that 
might  arise.  More  and  more  as  the  centuries 
passed  diplomacy  came  to  be  a  science,  strategic 
largely,  but  gradually  making  for  good  un 
derstanding  and  peace,  with  war  as  a  last  re 
sort. 

Until  1896  the  United  States  had  dealings 
with  foreign  powers  as  an  isolated  republic, 
having  no  interests  abroad  beyond-,,  those  of 
commerce,  and  with  nothing  alien  to  interfere 
with  American  policy  at  home  except  Florida,  \ 

the  vast  Louisiana  territory,  and  later  the  prox 
imity  of  Spanish  conditions  in  Cuba,  which 
were  bad  enough  to  demand  interference  in  the 
name  of  humanity  and  good  neighbourhood. 
But  in  undertaking  this  praiseworthy  enterprise 
the  government  was  drawn  away  from  its  tra 
ditional  policy  of  non-interference  with  foreign 
lands  and  found  itself  in  possession  of  remote 
islands  in  the  Orient,  once  belonging  to  Spain. 
The  Powers  of  Europe  and  the  East  began  to 
-C  79  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

take  notice  of  the  departure  by  the  Republic 
of  the  West  from  its  previous  attitude.  It 
had  become  a  world-power  like  themselves 
and  might  have  to  be  reckoned  with  according 
to  their  own  methods. 

Whatever  was  new  in  the  situation  con 
fronted  John  Hay  as  Ambassador-in-chief  of 
the  United  States  in  Europe.  There  had  been 
little  since  the  Civil  War  to  perplex  our  rep 
resentatives  in  London,  and  during  the  war 
it  was  foreign  meddling  with  us  as  an  isolated 
people  attending  to  its  own  affairs.  But  in 
the  next  war  it  was  our  interference,  for  good 
reasons  of  course,  with  an  ancient  kingdom 
with  traditions  held  sacred  by  imperialists 
from  the  British  Channel  to  the  China  Sea, 
and  they  asked  what  should  be  done  about  the 
unwonted  action  of  this  hermit  nation  of  the 
West. 

To  Ambassador  Hay  it  fell  to  explain  at 
the  principal  court  of  the  nations  what  were 
-C  80  > 


Diplomacy 

the  causes  of  the  war  with  Spain,  its  pur 
pose,  its  justification,  what  would  be  its  satis 
factory  issue,  and  final  adjustments.  The  re-/ 
ception  his  explanation  received  in  London 
would  determine  largely  the  sentiment  to  pre 
vail  elsewhere.  The  story  of  his  two  years' 
residence  is  a  part  of  diplomatic  history,  more 
or  less  disclosed  and  understood;  but  whatever 
in  it  is  a  record  of  wise  management,  of  honour 
able  dealing,  and  noteworthy  success  must  be 
attributed  to  the  skill,  prudence,  and  decision 
of  John  Hay.  Of  his  diligence  in  the  nation's 
business  it  was  remarked  by  an  English  states 
man  that  he  did  twice  the  work  of  his  prede 
cessors  in  their  longer  tenure  of  office,  and  of 
its  effect  the  reply  of  a  prime  minister  to  a 
suggestion  to  join  in  a  hostile  demonstration 
off  the  coast  of  Cuba  may  be  taken  as  an  indi 
cation:  "Yes,  I  have  been  thinking  of  this, 
but  in  connection  with  the  American  fleet." 
No  European  government  was  anxious  to  med- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

die  with  the  agreement  of  two  Anglo-Saxon 
countries. 

Moreover,  this  agreement  was  due  more 
than  to  anything  else  to  that  weight  of  per 
sonal  character  which  enables  one  to  deal  with 
other  men  in  council.  Dignity  is  its  outward 
phase,  reserve  its  inner  disposition,  but  justice 
and  fair-play  are  qualities  which  win  over 
greed  and  power.  These  considerations  always 
appeal  to  Englishmen  sooner  or  later,  and  Mr. 
Hay  was  not  long  in  coming  to  a  good  under 
standing  with  members  of  the  British  Govern 
ment  so  that  he  could  assure  President  Mc- 
Kinley  of  the  co-operation  of  England  and 
of  the  consequent  non-interference  of  the  rest 
of  Europe,  and  the  ultimate  success  of  the 
undertaking  to  limit  the  future  career  of  Spain 
to  its  own  peninsula.  For  centuries  it  had 
spread  its  blight  over  the  fairest  spaces  of  the 
Western  World  and  in  tropical  isles.  From 
the  last  of  them  the  pestilence  had  been  swept 
•C  82  3- 


Diplomacy 

by  our  army  and  navy;  but  back  of  these  was  ^ 
the  consent  of  Powers  won  by  the  diplomacy  of 
John  Hay. 

Thus  his  first  important  transaction  in  the 
domain  of  the  larger  politics  ended  with  great 
honour  to  himself  and  with  the  good  will  of 
the  nation  with  .which  he  had  dealt._  He  fol 
lowed  a  distinguished  company  who  had  rep 
resented  the  country  in  England  from  one  war 
to  another — Adams,  Lowell,  Phelps,  Bayard, 
— more  eminent  than  English  envoys  here, 
but  he  kept  their  high  standard  and,  with  the 
exception  of  the  first,  under  conditions  more 
difficult  to  meet.  As  he  had  won  pre-emi 
nence  in  literature,  so  now  he  had  added  equal 
distinction  in  diplomacy,  and  his  honourable  _ 
name  and  record  were  known  in  every  nation^ 
No  more  distinguished  American  could  be  men 
tioned  in  public  life  and  none  with  such  li 
world-wide  acquaintance.  Never  seeking  or 
apparently  caring  for  an  elective  office,  he 
-C  83  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

seemed  to  have  reached  the  summit  of  achieve 
ment  in  the  higher  ranges  of  political  activity, 
international  instead  of  merely  national,  for 
eign  as  well  as  domestic.  Yet  a  still  greater 
distinction  awaited  him. 

In  the  autumn  of  1898  the  Secretaryship 
of  State  became  vacant  and  President  McKin- 
ley's  way  was  clear  to  appoint  the  best  man 
to  the  office  irrespective  of  political  obligations. 
The  one  man,  whose  education  for  the  posi 
tion  rivalled  that  of  Europeans,  trained  ac 
cording  to  the  custom  of  their  countries,  was 
at  the  Court  of  St.  James.  His  recall  was  im 
mediate  for  promotion  to  the  chief  place  in 
the  Cabinet,  in  which  he  was  to  achieve  still 
greater  eminence  and  world-wide  renown.  Di 
rectly  the  Spanish  questions  following  the  war 
met  him  on  the  threshold.  Diplomatic  rela 
tions  with  a  nation  which  had  just  been  com 
pelled  to  accept  defeat  required  more  than 
ordinary  knowledge  and  tact  to  re-establish. 
•C  84  > 


Diplomacy 

Sympathising  powers  here  and  there  had  to  be 
treated  with  discretion  and  sometimes  w^th 
valour.  Treaties  were  to  be  reconstructed, 
territory  re-distributed,  prisoners  returned,  and 
new  governments  ordered  with  such  guarantees 
of  safety  and  peace  as  could  be  given  in  far- 
off  islands  of  Eastern  seas  and  with  uneasy 
Cuba  and  the  Western  isles  near  by.  If  it 
cannot  be  truly  said  that  the  United  States 
had  not  been  strictly  a  world-power,  there 
were  certainly  some  wider  questions  arising 
than  had  previously  confronted  the  nation  and 
its  Secretaries  of 'State.  In  the  midst  of  deal 
ing  with  issues  of  the  Spanish  War  another 
came  up  which  required  still  wider  outlook, 
more  careful  procedure,  and  immediate  action. 
A  brief  restatement  of  the  cause  which  led  to 
it  will  recall  what  was  once  before  the  public. 
In  1897  tne  supremacy  of  America  in  steel 
industries  began  to  be  looked  upon  with  anx 
iety  by  Germany  and  Russia  in  their  poverty 
-C  85  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

of  ores.  Looking  for  a  supply  it  was  discov 
ered,  or  already  known,  that  an  abundance 
could  be  found  in  northern  China  not  far  from 
the  coast.  To  obtain  the  desirable  provinces 
it  would  be  as  impossible  to  march  in  and 
take  them  as  to  cut  a  slice  out  of  a  hornets'  nest. 
Accordingly  it  was  suggested  that  all  commer 
cial  nations  assemble  for  a  wholesale  division, 
each  one  taking  a  share  of  what  Germany  and 
Russia  left.  These  two  powers,  however,  were 
in  such  haste  that  their  premature  aggressions 
caused  the  nest  to  swarm,  and  in  consequence 
the  German  minister  was  murdered  on  June 
20^1900,  the  legations  attacked,  war  provoked, 
with  the  division  of  China  almost  inevitable, 
industrial  occupation  by  foreigners  and  the  ruin 
of  American  enterprise  to  follow.  It  looked 
like  a  commercial  calamity  to  be  warded  off; 
but  there  were  also  humanitarian  issues  to  be 
considered  and  speedily,  for  trouble  had  begun. 
It  was  the  United  States  against  the  kingdoms 


Diplomacy 

of^Eurojpe,  interested  or  indifferent,  and  John 
Hay  to  deal  with  _their  diplomats.  He  lost 
no  time  in  doing  this  and  took  them  by  sur 
prise.  In  opposition  to  them  all  he  urged  the 
recognition  and  assistance  of  the  Chinese  Gov 
ernment,  which  nad_beenj:>uj:  out  of  commis 
sion  by  internal  disorders  amounting  to  an 
archy,  and  incidentally  he^appealed  f of  ISe 
maintenance  of  peace  with  China.  To  make 
his  recommendation  effective  he  proposed  that 
the  President  send  troops  to  occupy  Pekin,  to 
co-operate  with  the  viceroys,  and  protect  lega 
tions. 

It  was  a  bold  stroke  with  respect  to  the 
Powers  who  were  gathering  together  in  con 
templated  coalition  like  eagles  around  the  car 
case.  Some  of  them  had  already  established 
themselves  in  the  land.  It  was  also  bold  with 
respect  to  the  Chinese  who  had  already  re 
pulsed  a  British  admiral.  Nevertheless,  Pekin 
was  occupied  and  the  legations  with  their  de- 
-C  87  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

pendants  protected.  Mr.  Hay  had  averted  j, 
serious  catastrophe.  Then  he  set  about  with 
drawing  one  Power  after  another  from  the  al 
liance  which  wished  to  partition  the  Celestial 
Empire  among  themselves.  Gradually  the 
confederacy  of  vultures  dissolved,  England  and 
Germany  being  the  last  to  take  their  homeward 
flight.  The  integral  existence  of  China  was  as- 
§uredx  and  also  German  competition  with  the 
principal  American  industry  was  prevented. 
Of  course  it  had  the  appearance  of  a  two-sided 
transaction.  It  was  commendable  in  that  it 
was  such.  Diplomacy  contemplates  material 
advantages  alone,  for  the  most  part,  and  the 
profit  of  the  diplomat's  country.  If  this  is  se 
cured  its  reason  for  maintenance  is  justified. 
x  But  when  in  addition  to  this  primary  object 
a  great  service  is  done  for  a  land  threatened 
with  division  through  the  greed  of  a  more  pow 
erful  government,  by  the  intervention  of  an 
other  nation  for  its  own  advantage  and  inci- 

f*    oo    *»» 

-£   oo   ;}- 


Diplomacy 

dentally  for  the  "entity"  of  the  weaker,  then 
it  is  praiseworthy  that  diplomacy  has  a  double 
edge.  Duplicity  is  supposed  to  be  its  main  fea 
ture,  and  to  darken  counsel  with  dubious  words 
its  chief  accomplishment.  In  this"  instance,  as 
in  all  of  John  Hay's  dealings  with  the  diplo 
mats  of  his  time,  his  speech  and  writing  were 
so  frank,  sincere,  and  direct  that  the  ceremonial 
equivocators  whom  he  addressed  found  in  his 
unmistakable  communications  a  quality  as  new 
and  characteristic  as  that  which  had  interested 
them  in  his  literary  ventures.  It  was  not 
European,  Asiatic,  or  Oriental;  but  it  was  im 
mediately  intelligible  and  honest,  with  abound 
ing  good  sense  and  loyalty  to  the  principles  of 
the  Golden  Rule,  which  appeals  to  the  inmost 
conscience  of  even  a  diplomat. 

If,  however,  there  had  been  in  this  affair 
only  the  single  purpose  of  protecting  Amer 
ican  interests  by  insisting  upon  the  unbroken 
integrity  of  the  Flowery  Kingdom,  there  would 

-£892- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

have  been  a  compensatory  act  in  the  subsequent 
remission  of  a  large  part  of  the  indemnity  to 
be  paid  the  United  States  on  account  of  the 
damages  and  injuries  occasioned  by  the  Boxer 
outbreak.  This  return  to  China  of  values  run 
ning  into  millions  was  a  graceful,  generous, 
and  gratuitous  deed  which  was  appreciated  by 
its  people  as  better  by  far  than  encroachments 
on  their  territory  for  any  assumed  advantage. 
A  contented  race  of  425,000,000,  largely  villag 
ers,  quietly  pursuing  their  simple  occupations  in 
the  ways  their  ancestors  followed  them  for  thou 
sands  of  years,  concerned  chiefly  with  the  pres 
ent  life  and  for  their  religion  worshipping  the 
memory  of  their  forefathers — such  a  people 
had  no  longing  for  "foreign  devils"  and  their 
labour-saving  machinery,  nor  even  for  a  reli 
gion  which  looks  forward  instead  of  backward. 
Therefore  they  have  not  always  hastened  to 
meet  the  commercial  advances  of  Western  en 
terprise  nor  the  self-sacrificing  attempts  of  mis- 
-C  90  > 


Diplomacy 

sionaries  to  show  them  that  the  future  life  is 
of  more  consequence  than  the  present  or  than 
the  past  existence  of  forbears.  It  was  of  im 
mense  advantage  to  the  nations  outside  the  wall 
that  a  breach  should  be  made  in  it,  and  some 
benefit  to  the  mysterious  Chinaman  will  inci 
dentally  accrue  as  the  years  go  by,  if  invasion 
and  appropriation  are  conducted  wisely.  It  is 
certainly  profitable  for  the  Occident  that  the 
"open  door"  policy  was  secured  with  the  con 
sent  of  the  Chinese  by  the  efforts  of  John  Hay 
when  other  efforts  had  failed.  To  him  accord 
ingly  must  be  awarded  the  praise  for  this  early 
achievement  in  his  diplomatic  career,  prepara 
tory  to  preserving  the  Kingdom  in  its  entirety, 
to  which  the  remission  of  fines  for  resenting  in 
trusion  was  a  graceful  epilogue;  not,  however, 
without  its  grain  of  justice  to  a  people  resent 
ful  with  at  least  a  granule  of  reason  from  their 
own  point  of  view. 

This  threefold  transaction  in  the  Orient  may 
-C  91  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

be  summed  up  as  the  achievement  of  a  states 
man  who  opened  a  sealed  door;  then  with  up 
lifted  palm  held  back  a  horde  ready  to  rush 
in  and  divide  the  spoils;  arid  finally  remitting 
penalties  for  a  heathen  but  natural  protest 
against  Christian  greed  and  intrusion.  It  was 
all  to  his  credit,  or  whatever  was  his  share  in 
y  it  all,  and  was  appreciated  by  the  simple  folk 
who  can  understand  the  spirit  of  the  Golden 
Rule  as  well  as  the  plain  precepts  of  Confu 
cius;  and  the  memory  of  the  diplomat  who  se 
cured  an  advantage  for  his  own  country  without 
injury  to  another  will  be  cherished  with  grati 
tude  forever. 

In  the  midst  of  negotiations  in  the  Orient 
another  matter  of  paramount  interest  to  this 
master  of  diplomacy  presented  itself  in  the  Oc 
cident.  If  Vasco  de  Balboa  as  he  stood  on 
the  crest  of  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  in  Septem 
ber,  1513,  did  not  see  a  possibility  of  connect 
ing  the  ocean  he  had  crossed  with  the  one  he 
-C  92  * 


Diplomacy 

had  just  discovered,  some  one  did  within  fif 
teen  years,  for  Philip  II  at  that  time  had  it  in 
mind,  but  for  reasons  of  his  own  forbade  that 
the  scheme  should  be  entertained  on  pain  of 
death.  It  slept  for  three  centuries,  when  in 
1826  a  line  was  traced  across  the  neck,  to  be 
repeated  in  frequent  surveys  of  different  routes 
by  different  nations  with  no  result  until  the 
French  undertook  the  enterprise  under  the  di 
rection  of  DeLesseps,  who  had  constructed  the 
Suez  Canal.  The  completion  of  fourteen  miles 
in  nine  years,  the  running  out  of  funds,  the  pur 
chase  of  all  rights  by  the  United  States,  the 
creation  of  the  Republic  of  Panama  after  its 
secession  from  Colombia,  and  the  completion  of 
the  Canal  under  Colonel  Goethals  is  a  well- 
known  story.  But  the  political  situation  in 
1900  had  difficulties  and  obstructions  as  well 
as  the  proposed  channel  itself,  big  as  Culebra 
Hill. 

One  of  these  was  an  agreement  between  the 
-C  93  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

United  States  and  Great  Britain  in  1850  that 
"neither  the  one  nor  the  other  will  ever  obtain 
or  maintain  for  itself  any  exclusive  control 
over  the  said  [Panama]  ship  canal;  nor  ever 
erect  or  maintain  any  fortifications  command 
ing  the  same,  or  exercise  any  dominion  over  any 
part  of  Central  America,"  with  other  stipula 
tions  to  which  within  three  years  this  country  at 
least  wished  it  had  not  agreed.  For  forty 
years  the  United  States  attempted  to  secure  the 
repeal  or  modification  of  this  article,  but  no  Sec 
retary  of  State  was  successful  in  his  approaches 
to  the  English  Cabinet.  It  fell  to  John  Hay 
to  open  negotiations,  after  Congress  in  1899 
had  provided  for  the  construction  of  a  canal, 
and  requested  another  effort  to  be  made  for  the 
abrogation  of  the  above,  Clayton-Bulwer, 
treaty.  The  discussion  of  this  important  meas 
ure  between  Mr.  Hay  and  Lord  Pauncefote, 
British  Ambassador  in  Washington,  and  the 
correspondence  with  the  ministry  in  London 
-C  94  > 


Diplomacy 

are  matters  of  diplomatic  history  not  needful 
to  recount  at  length.  Suffice  it  to  remark,  that 
the  surrender  of  guarantees  pledged  to  Great 
Britain  by  the  Treaty  of  1850  was  not  made 
by  that  power  with  alacrity  and  eagerness. 
Joint  control  of  the  canal  was  at  length  given 
up,  and  the  right  to  build  it  ceded  to  the  United 
States;  but_jieutrality  was  demanded  and  a 
pledge  from  the  builders  to  refrain  from  forti 
fying  it. 

This  was  far  from  satisfactory  to  the  Sen 
ate  when  the  proposed  convention  came  before 
that  body,  and  the  press  of  the  country  was 
loud  in  its  denunciation  of  the  Secretary  of 
State.  He  was  called  an  incompetent  blun 
derer,  an  amateur  in  statecraft,  friendly  to 
England  in  consequence  of  his  residence  at 
Court.  If  his  maligners  had  been  similarly 
favoured  they  would  have  known  that  a  nation 
does  not  relinquish  its  rights  in  one  of  the 
globe's  highways  all  at  once  to  a  rival  nation. 
•C  95  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

It  was  remarkable  that  Mr.  Hay  could  obtain 
what  no  other  Secretary  had  secured.  But  it 
was  not  enough;  and  while  the  Senate  ham 
mered  on  the  treaty  the  press  pounded  the 
American  party  to  it.  Such  criticism  was  as 
new  to  Mr.  Hay  as  it  was  painful.  He  had 
done  his  best  with  the  representative  of  a  con 
servative  government  having  large  commercial 
and  maritime  interests.  No  one  could  have 
done  better.  He  got  the  thanks  one  sometimes 
gets  for  doing  his  best.  However,  he  did  not 
resign;  and  when  the  treaty  proposed  had  been 
sufficiently  amended  he  wrote  a  new  one,  skil 
fully  embodying  the  amendments  in  another 
draft  which  promptly  received  the  endorsement 
of  the  Senate,  very  much  as  a  man  hastens  to 
sign  a  letter  as  his  own  which  has  been  revised 
and  corrected.  This  he  took  to  the  British 
Ambassador,  and  after  further  discussion  and 
negotiation  the  Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty  was 
signed  twenty-one  months  after  the  first  agree- 
-C96  3- 


Diplomacy 

ment  between  the  representatives  of  the  two 
countries. 

It  was  a  noteworthy  achievement  whose  con 
sequences  have  been  growing  more  apparent 
year  by  year  as  the  enterprise  made  possible  by 
it  has  progressed  toward  completion.  If,  how 
ever,  it  had  been  a  joint  affair  between  even 
friendly  nations  of  one  blood,  embarrassments 
might  have  arisen  to  which  the  exemption  from 
tolls  difficulty  was  but  the  foreshadowing  of 
a  serious  misunderstanding.  Careful  as  he  \ 
was  of  Ameiican^interestSj^Mr-  Hay  would 
never  have  asked  for  their  promotion  at  the  ex 
pense  of ._other _  nations,  and  no  legitimate  inter-  / 
pretation  of  his  treaty  with  England  could  read 
such  a  provision  into  it. 

The  same  sense  of  justice  toward  other  pow 
ers,  combined  with  insistence  upon  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  his  own,  pervades  other 
treaties  and  conventions  and  agreements  which 
he  was  continually  making.  Moreover,  be- 
-C  97  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

/yond  the  boundaries  of  mere  justice  as  deter- 

/  mined  by  international  law  he  was  always 
suggesting  something  in  the  way  of  mercy  and 

\  humanity.  He  would  do  away  with  penalties 
that  were  punitive  rather  than  restraining,  and 
urged  limiting  indemnities  in  China  to  actual 
losses  and  to  the  people's  ability  to  pay,  and 
then  advocated  remission  of  half  the  imposed 
obligation  by  the  United  States;  an  example 
which  other  nations  were  in  no  haste  to  fol 
low,  but  which  secured  the  favour  of  the  Celes 
tials  in  later  agreements,  notably  in  opening 

;  the  ports  of  Manchuria  to  American  commerce, 
y  I  So  his  plea  that  their  rights  be  respected  in  the 
Russo-Japanese  War  meant  more  than  that 
trade  be  undisturbed,  since  portions  of  the  Em 
pire  might  have  been  ground  as  between  two 
millstones.  His  virtues  of  patience  and  per 
sistence  were  equally  conspicuous  upon  occa 
sion;  as  for  instance  in  dealing  with  Turkey, 
notorious  for  itsjpplicy  of  procrastination,  in 
-C  98  > 


Diplomacy 

the  matter  of  claims  for  the  destruction  of 
American  property  in  the  Armenian  disorders  of 
1895.  As  far  along  as  1898  the  Sultan  "di 
rected  indemnity  to  be  arranged,  and  sent  his 
compliments  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States,"  but  had  sent  no  money  two  years  and 
two  months  later,  when  Mr.  Hay  made  another 
request  and  insisted  upon  immediate  payment. 
Four  months  afterward  $95,000  was  paid,  in 
accordance  with  the  Ottoman  policy  of  "to 
morrow."  But  by  Mr.  Hay's  horologe  this 
meant  "some  day."  Its  pendulum,  unlike  the 
poet's  clock  on  the  stair,  did  not  say  Never, 
Forever;  Forever,  Never. 

In  1899  it  did  seem  that  this  Fabian  policy 
was  prevailing  with  respect  to  the  settlement 
of  the  Alaskan  boundary  between  American 
and  British  possessions.  For  thirty-two  years 
it  had  remained  undetermined  when  Mr.  Hay 
obtained  a  provisional  line,  for  which  he  was 
criticised  by  government  supervisors  of  his 
•C  99  3- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

business,  whom  he  patiently  tried  to  reassure, 
and  did  silence  when  four  years  later  he  con 
cluded  a  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  establish 
ing  the  claims  of  the  United  States.  Other 
instances  of  his  patience  and  firmness  were 
manifested  in  his  dealings  with  Russia  from 
time  to  time,  and  with  Germany  in  1899 
about  the  Samoan  Islands  and  on  additional 
occasions. 

There  was  a  constant  opportunity  for  the  ex 
ercise  of  tact  and  decision,  patience  and  fore 
sight,  by  Mr.  Hay,  whose  treaty-making  ability 
was  called  into  continual  requisition.  Fifty- 
eight  international  agreements  were  concluded 
during  his  administration  of  the  Department  of 
State,  many  of  them  the  outcome  of  long  and 
complicated  negotiations.  Besides,  he  was 
frequently  engaged  in  efforts  to  bring  about  in 
ternational  arbitration,  and  was  always  labour 
ing  for  the  establishment  of  justice  and  comity 
between  nations  in  their  dealings  with  one  an- 
-C  100> 


Diplomacy  : 
other,        he  Monroe  Doctrine  for  America  and  | 


GolJeii_Rul£jor  aUjJie^^rld  were  the 
ground  of  his  policy.  I  He  asked  nothing  for  his 
own  country  that  he  would  not  concede  to  an 
other  similarly  situated,  nor  for  himself  that 
he  would  not  yield  to  his  neighbour.  And  who 
was  not  his  neighbour,  at  home  or  abroad? 
Who  ever  had  so  many  that  were  glad  to  call 
him  their  friend,  from  his  classmates  in 
college  to  Prime  Ministers  next  every  throne  in 
Europe  and  the  East? 

Such  services  as  Secretary  Hay  performed  in 
the  Department  of  State,  with  insufficient  as 
sistance,  were  arduous  enough  to  wear  upon  a 
robust  man  in  the  best  of  health.  This  incum 
bent  was  not  well  when  he  reluctantly  con 
sented  to  come  to  President  McKinley's  relief 
in  a  critical  time. 

The  first  term  of  laborious  service  was  just~ 
over  when  a  crushing  blow  fell  upon  Mr.  Hay 
and  family  in  the  sudden  death  of  his  son, 


John'  HaV,  Author  and  Statesman 

Adelbert  Stone,  June  23,  1901,  while  attending 
anniversary  exercises  of  his  alma  mater,  Yale. 
He  was  twenty-five  years  of  age,  had  been  his 
father's  secretary  in  London  and  United  States 
Consul  to  Pretoria,  South  Africa,  where  he 
proved  very  efficient  and  won  the  esteem  of 
both  Boers  and  British.  On  his  return  in  1900 
he  was  appointed  assistant  secretary  to  the 
President. 

Then  the  assassination  of  his  chief  and  dear 
friend  three  months  later  was  another  shock 
which  contributed  to  his  decline.  Increased 
duties  and  graver  responsibilities  during  the  ad 
ministration  which  was  thrust  upon  Mr.  Roose 
velt  added  to  burdens  and  labours  which  should 
have  been  thrown  off  with  a  sad  opportunity. 
As  he  had  enlisted  for  the  whole  term  he  felt 
that  he  should  not  desert  his  post  in  the  day  of 
calamity,  especially  since  his  continuance  in  it 
was  desired. 

After  Mr.   McKinley's   death,   leaving  the 


Diplomacy 

presidency  vacant,  Mr.  Hay  would  gladly  have 
been  released  in  order  to  travel,  write,  and  rest. 
He  had  plans  for  literary  work  to  carry  out 
and  would  have  been  cheered  with  the  compan 
ionship  of  books  and  friends.  But  Mr.  Roose 
velt  drove  straight  to  his  house  on  his  arrival 
in  Washington  and  begged  the  Secretary  to  con 
tinue  in  office.  Had  he  not  yielded  it  is  prob 
able  that  the  world  would  have  been  richer  in 
literature  by  the  harvest  of  a  busy  life.  But 
great  national  interests  needed  his  statesman 
ship. 

Accordingly  he  stayed  on  and  worked  on  as 
siduously,  patiently,  with  anxieties  which  were 
more  wearing  even  than  the  toil,  and  with  wait 
ing  which  was  more  annoying  than  labour. 
And  all  the  while  the  silver  cord  was  loosen 
ing  until  the  golden  bowl  was  broken.  Ap 
prehending  a  breakdown,  he  went  to  Europe  in 
April  for  change  and  such  rest  as  the  voyage 
should  afford  him  but  returned  in  June  little 
-C1033- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

benefited.  After  a  short  visit  to  Washington 
he  retired  to  his  summer  home  on  Lake  Suna- 
pee,  in  New  Hampshire.  It  was  generally 
supposed  that  he  was  convalescing;  but  a  sud 
den  collapse  in  the  morning  of  July  i,  1905, 
was  followed  by  his  death. 

One  of  his  classmates  2  sends  the  following 
from  a  tribute  to  his  memory: 

"When  I  read  the  announcement  of  the 
death  of  this  distinguished  man  at  his  beauti 
ful  home  on  Lake  Sunapee,  and  that  the  casket 
was  conveyed  to  the  railroad  station  in  a  plain 
covered  wagon  drawn  by  his  favourite  white 
horse  through  the  woods,  while  the  rain  was 
falling  in  torrents  as  if  the  skies  would  join 
in  mourning  for  the  dead  scholar,  poet,  and 
statesman,  I  took  from  my  library  the  volume 
of  his  poems  and  turning  the  leaves  to  the 
'Stirrup  Cup'  I  thoughtfully  read  these  pa 
thetic  lines:" 

2  Hon  Solon  Stevens  of  Winchester,  Mass. 


Diplomacy 

My  short  and  happy  day  is  done, 
The  long  and  dreary  night  comes  on; 
And  at  my  door  the  Pale  Horse  stands, 
To  carry  me  to  unknown  lands. 

His  whinny  shrill,  his  pawing  hoof, 
Sound  dreadful  as  a  gathering  storm; 
And  I  must  leave  this  sheltering  roof, 
And  joys  of  life  so  soft  and  warm. 

Tender  and  warm  the  joys  of  life, — 
Good  friends,  the  faithful  and  the  true; 
My  rosy  children  and  my  wife, 
So  sweet  to  kiss,  so  fair  to  view. 

So  sweet  to  kiss,  so  fair  to  view, — 
The  night  comes  down,  the  lights  burn  blue ; 
And  at  my  door  the  Pale  Horse  stands, 
To  bear  me  forth  to  unknown  lands. 

The  burial  service  was  held  in  the  chapel  of 
the  Lake  View  Cemetery  at  Cleveland.  The 
coffin  was  carried  to  the  grave  during  the  sing 
ing  of  "Crossing  the  Bar,"  one  of  Mr.  Hay's 
favourite  hymns.  The  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  members  of  the 
McKinley  and  Roosevelt  Cabinets,  the  British 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

Ambassador,  the  Governor  of  Ohio  and  many 
other  distinguished  men  were  present.  Services 
were  also  held  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
the  Covenant,  of  which  Mr.  Hay  was  a  de 
vout  member  and  a  trustee.  The  diplomatic 
corps  attended  in  a  body  and  the  most  of  offi 
cial  Washington.  In  St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 
London,  services  were  conducted  by  the  Arch 
bishop  of  Canterbury,  Dean  Gregory,  and  Arch 
deacon  Sinclair,  the  edifice  being  crowded.  In 
Rome  also  services  were  held  in  the  American 
Episcopal  Church.  Press  comment  was  uni 
versal  in  its  commendation  of  his  labours  and 
eulogistic  of  his  career  as  a  statesman  and  his 
character  as  a  man.  A  few  representative  ex 
amples  may  be  given  here: 

A  Southern  journal  3  charges  the  success  of 
two  administrations  to  their  Secretary  of  State 
and  their  failures  to  disregard  of  his  advice,  de 
claring  that  his  most  strenuous  struggles  were 

3  Atlanta  Journal. 


Diplomacy 

not  with  foreign  courts  but  with  the  United 

II 

States  Senate  and  his  defeats  were  suffered  at 
its  hands. 

Another  paper,4  comparing  him  with  con 
temporary  ministers  of  foreign  affairs,  asserted 
that  he  excelled  Tittoni,  Von  Biilow,  the 
Marquis  of  Lansdowne,  and  Delcasse,  and  was 
the  greatest  foreign  minister  of  his  time. 

The  London  Spectator  remarked:  "He  was 
not  a  politician,  never  sat  in  Congress  or  ran 
for  office,  or  sought  favour  of  any  party  leader. 
His  private  life  is  private,  courts  unostentatious 
shadows,  is  unknown  to  the  masses  of  his  coun 
trymen,  a  force  rather  than  a  personality,  some 
thing  in  the  background  that  manages  to  direct 
foreign  affairs."  And  the  London  Times: 
"Not  until  the  secret  history  of  our  days  is 
made  public  will  mankind  be  able  to  pronounce 
upon  the  greatness  of  his  work  and  its  signifi 
cance  for  generations  yet  unborn." 

York  World. 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

Five  years  after  his  decease,  on  November 
11,  1910,  the  library  which  bears  his  name  was 
dedicated  to  his  memory.  It  had  been  made 
possible  by  the  gift  of  $150,000  by  Mr.  An 
drew  Carnegie  on  condition  that  an  equal 
amount  be  obtained  from  others,  which  was 
easily  secured  from  twenty-nine  persons.  He 
also  suggested  that  the  building  be  a  memorial 
to  Mr.  Hay.  At  the  dedication  President 
Faunce  emphasised  the  good  fortune  of  Brown 
University  in  having  such  an  example  to  hold 
up  before  its  young  men,  a  man  whose  career 
had  a  mysterious  quality  not  readily  appre 
hended,  glorified  by  a  light  which  is  needed  to 
day  in  academic  halls.  Hon.  James  B.  Angel  1, 
President  Emeritus  of  the  University  of  Michi 
gan,  dwelt  upon  the  fitness  of  giving  the  name 
of  John  Hay  to  the  Library,  and  called  to  mind 
his  unusual  gifts  in  student  days — his  extraor 
dinary  mastery  of  words  and  of  a  felicitous 
style,  the  promise  of  a  brilliant  literary  future, 


Diplomacy 

fulfilled  in  so  far  as  he  devoted  himself  to  let 
ters,  and  the  value  of  such  attainments  in  his 
diplomatic  career.  Hon.  Elihu  Root,  Senator 
from  New  York  and  his  successor  in  office, 
after  paying  tribute  to  his  personal  traits  en 
larged  upon  his  character  and  achievements  as 
Secretary  of  State,  mentioning  instances  illus 
trating  his  distinction  in  diplomacy,  and  in  his 
labours  for  the  welfare  of  the  human  race. 

Professor  Koopman,  Librarian,  closed  the 
exercises  by  receiving  the  key  with  an  appo 
site  interpretation  of  the  value  of  the  Memorial 
to  the  present  and  the  future. 

"For  the  library  is  the  true  chambered  nau 
tilus,  forever  enlarging  its  bounds,  yet  never 
relinquishing  its  old  possessions.  I  accept  this 
key  also  in  the  name  of  the  unknown  and  un- 
imagined  future,  whereof  the  youngest  r>ow  lin 
ing  shall  see  but  a  fragment/' 

On  a     arble  Cablet  in  the  entrance  hall  is  in 


scribed  h}  letters  of  gfcjld  : 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

IN    MEMORY    OF 

JOHN  HAY 

OF    THE    CLASS    OF    1858 
POET       HISTORIAN       DIPLOMATIST 

STATESMAN 

WHO    MAINTAINED    THE    OPEN    DOOR 
AND    THE    GOLDEN    RULE 

THIS    BUILDING 

HAS    BEEN    ERECTED    BY 

HIS    FRIENDS    AND 

FELLOW    ALUMNI 


-C"o> 


V 

IMPRESSIONS  AND  CONCLUSIONS 

AFTER  one  has  gone  out  into  the  Unknown  it 
becomes  more  and  more  difficult  to  recall  his 
personality  as  the  years  go  by.  The  vanishing 
figure  grows  less  and  less  distinct  to  those  who 
knew  it  well,  while  those  who  had  not  this  ad 
vantage  and  must  construct  a  character  from 
fragmentary  records  and  differing  portraits  find 
the  undertaking  as  perplexing  as  it  is  unsatis 
factory.  When,  however,  a  man  has  left  im 
pressions  on  his  age,  and  has  been  of  sufficient 
consequence  to  have  his  acts  recorded  by  con 
temporaries  of  various  persuasions  there  is  the 
possibility  of  conjecturing  what  were  the  lead 
ing  traits  which  guided  action  and  formed  char 
acter.  If  these  records  and  testimonials  are 
supplemented  by  faithful  portraiture  some  idea 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

may  be  formed  of  the  personality  which  went 
in  and  out  among  its  fellows,  the  children  of 
men  in  the  land  of  the  living. 

Beginning  with  the  external  and  more  ob 
vious,  no  one  could  meet  John  Hay  without 
the  immediate  recognition  of  his  gentlemanly 
bearing.  He  was  born  with  the  essential  apti 
tudes  of  a  gentleman,  he  cultivated  them  with 
other  gifts  in  college  without  being  a  dude,  as 
he  certainly  was  not  a  husky  of  the  modern 
type.  In  what  was  to  him  a  graduate  school 
in  Washington  he  met  opportunities  of  learn 
ing  the  unwritten  code  of  minor  ethics — the 
"manners  that  maketh  man" — and  often  his  for 
tunes;  and  if  there  were  other  customs  in  other 
lands  his  residence  in  three  European  capitals 
enabled  him,  like  the  languages  he  learned  to 
speak  with  facility,  to  be  at  home  with  any  dig 
nitary  from  any  country.  So  when  Mr.  Mc- 
Kinley  appointed  him  to  the  office  which  deals 
with  the  nations  of  the  world  he  said:  "To 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

my  mind  John  Hay  is  the  fairest  flower  of  our 
civilisation.  Cultured,  wealthy,  with  a  love  of 
travel,  of  leisure,  of  scholarly  pursuits,  able  to 
go  where  he  likes  and  do  what  he  likes,  he  is 
yet  patriotic  enough  to  give  his  great  talents 
to  his  country."  Incidentally  and  by  contrast 
it  may  be  remarked  that  sundry  critics  of  the 
baser  sort  did  not  appreciate  these  attainments 
and  denounced  the  President  for  appointing  to 
the  Court  of  St.  James  and  to  the  Secretaryship 
"an  exclusive,  un-American  aristocrat," — whose 
work,  however,  and  convenient  abilities  and 
friendly  ways  soon  became  apparent,  and  the 
public  was  won. 

Beyond  the  correctness  of  the  outward  man 
ner,  which  another  with  equal  advantages 
might  learn,  was  the  kindheartedness  which 
made  his  gentlemanliness  spontaneous  and  un 
failing'.  There  were  plenty  of  occasions  and 
people  to  test  his  good  nature,  patience,  and 
temper.  Bores,  place  seekers,  impecunious 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

travellers,  fortune  hunters,  were  daily  incidents 
of  his  life  at  home  and  abroad.  He  was  days 
in  disposing  of  a  man  with  a  mission  without 
offending  him.  He  was  not  so  long  in  getting 
rid  of  liars,  who  were  his  bane,  but  it  was  done 
by  diplomatic  and  effective  politeness.  Of  a 
certain  titled  European  he  said:  "When  the 
count  comes  to  talk  to  me  I  know  he  is  lying. 
What  I  try  to  find  out  is  why  he  is  telling  that 
particular  lie."  It  is  safe  to  say  that  my  lord 
did  not  suspect  from  Mr.  Hay's  treatment  of 
him  the  purpose  of  his  conversation.  To  men 
of  good  will  who  approached  him  he  was 
"sweetness  and  light"  whatever  their  station, 
from  the  professional  masseur  who  had  treated 
officials  in  foreign  capitals  and  our  own  for 
years  and  remarked,  "Mr.  Hay  is  the  finest 
gentleman  I  ever  knew,"  up  to  dignitaries 
who  met  him  on  matters  of  high  concern  and 
paid  tribute  to  his  unfailing  courtesy  and  his 
knowledge  of  when  and  how  the  right  word  was 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

to  be  spoken  and  the  fitting  deed  done.  Men 
of  the  press,  not  easily  deceived,  always  had  his 
sympathy  in  an  occupation  about  which  he 
knew  so  much,  and  were  ready  to  say  with  one 
of  their  number:  "He  was  like  a  father, 
brother,  philosopher,  guide,  and  friend,  rolled 
into  one." 

President  Roosevelt's  intimate  friendship 
with  Secretary  Hay  was  reciprocated  with  the 
fondness  which  arose  from  complementary 
qualities,  the  high  spirits  of  the  one  and  the 
quiet  humour  of  the  other  making  their  Sun 
day  afternoon  walks  together  a  joy  to  both. 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  record  of  them  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  tribute, — "Mr.  Hay  was  the 
most  charming  man  and  delightful  companion 
I  have  ever  known."  If  there  were  only  a  Bos- 
well  to  report  those  walks  and  talks !  The  sur 
vivor  said  they  nearly  always  ended  in  a  dis 
cussion  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

While  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  his  Sunday  after- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

noon  companion,  his  week-day  partner  in  pre- 
prandial  strolls  was  his  next  neighbour,  Mr. 
Henry  Adams,  the  historian.  It  was  the  day 
of  the  top  hat  and  frock  coat,  which  Mr.  Hay 
invariably  wore  with  the  punctiliousness  which 
he  always  observed  in  conventional  matters. 
Then  he  dressed  for  dinner  and  evening.  It 
was  a  part  of  his  sense  of  fitness  and  of  what 
was  due  from  a  man  in  his  station. 

The  mention  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  name  suggests 
two  qualities  which  an  early  intimacy  between 
the  elder  and  the  younger  man  developed. 
President  Lincoln  had  no  end  of  opportunities 
for  charity  and  patience.  He  came  into  office 
when  it  was  impossible  for  either  half  of  the 
nation  to  make  allowance  for  the  attitude  of 
the  other.  His  fatherly  love  embraced  North 
and  South;  therefore  he  was  maligned  by  each 
section  because  he  did  not  at  once  discard  the 
other. 

But  throughout  the  strife  with  all  its  mis- 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

understandings  he  kept  his  charity  for  all  and 
to  the  last  treated  all  as  the  members  of  one 
family  whose  unity  could  not  be  destroyed 
by  dissension.  This  large-mindedness  the 
young  man  witnessed  day  by  day  and  in  those 
sleepless  nights  when  his  chief  used  to  call  him 
to  converse  or  to  read  the  dramas  of  kings  and 
their  warring  people;  or  in  the  strain  of  anx 
iety,  of  the  lighter  follies  which  make  life  a 
comedy.  There  was  the  humour  of  a  heart 
which  might  have  been  broken  without  this  sav 
ing  grace.  But  both  the  charity  and  the  hu 
mour  were  always  before  the  young  man  at  an 
age  when  character  is  moulded,  and  finding 
them  germinant  gave  them  an  added  impulse  to 
grow  and  harden  into  abiding  principles  and 
dispositions.  That  they  were  personal  pos 
sessions,  however,  and  not  mere  imitations  may 
be  observed  in  the  respective  shades  and  texture 
of  the  humour  at  least,  the  consequence,  per 
haps,  of^the  different  environment  which  sur- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

rounded  each  in  early  life,  the  one  in  the  wilder 
ness,  the  other  in  a  cultivated  home. 

But,  according  to  the  proverb,  charity  will 
cover  a  multitude  of  offences,  one's  own  and 
other  people's,  and  a  sense  of  humour  will  gloss 
the  rest  if  it  does  not  forget  them.  For  these 
two  qualities  Mr.  Hay  found  abundant  need 
in  his  official  life.  Among  men  of  diverse 
training  in  several  lands,  and  of  differing  inter 
ests  in  his  own  country,  there  was  frequent  oc 
casion  for  the  largest  allowance  to  be  made, 
particularly  in  the  Senate,  where  his  treaties 
and  agreements  with  the  nations  had  to  go  for 
reading  and  assent.  ^  What  would  become  of  a 
Senator's  wisdom,  fresh  from  'Wayback,  if  he 
could  not  suggest  something  better  than  the 
proposal  of  a  mere  diplomat  who  had  been  out 
of  the  country  so  long  as  to  lose  his  per 
spective*?^  When  it  took  two  years  to  correct 
his  own  there  was  often  a  chance  for  charity 
if  not  for  humour.  So  the  great  treaty-mak- 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

ing  Secretary,  the  like  of  whom  in  wisdom  and 
efficiency  the  nation  has  never  seen,  who 
changed  the  whole  system  of  dealing  with  the 
nations,  patiently  and  charitably  waited  for 
many  a  politician  to  come  to  his  senses  and  to 
get  out  of  the  sectional  ruts  in  which  he  had 
ridden  and  his  father  before  him.  Meantime 
the  Secretary  kept  down  his  wrath  with  the  hu 
mour  that  lies  in  the  saw — "What  fools  these 
mortals  be !"  By  and  by  some  of  them  came  to 
confess  it. 

A  trait  which  made  his  surpassing  abilities 
the  more  conspicuous  was  his  modesty.  Of 
course  it  does  not  always  accompany  talent. 
If  the  possessor  of  great  attainments  is  sub 
limely  unconscious  of  his  gifts  and  acquire 
ments,  and  if  a  grudging  world  is  slow  to  pay 
homage  openly,  there  are  always  well-disposed 
friends  who  will  not  let  such  an  one  go  through 
life  unconscious  of  his  endowments.  Besides, 
the  recognition  that  comes  with  place  and  hon- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

curable  service  declares  the  ability  required  to 
fill  exalted  position,  making  it  impossible  for 
one  not  to  know  what  he  is  worth  in  the  world. 
Mr.  Hay  could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  his 
pre-eminent  value  to  the  nation,  and  of  his 
achievement  in  the  domain  of  letters.  His 
modesty  appears  with  the  latter.  Of  his 
poems  he  wrote  in  a  personal  letter:  "I  do 
not  think  much  of  my  poems.  They  have  had 
an  enormous  success,  both  in  this  country  and 
in  England,  but  I  think  it  will  be  ephemeral.1 
I  got  the  story  of  'Little  Breeches'  from  a  ser 
mon  by  Mr.  Winans  of  Hamilton.  The  char 
acter  of  'Jim  Bludso'  was  to  a  certain  extent 
founded  on  Oliver  Fairchild  of  Warsaw,  of 
course  not  intended  for  a  likeness.  I  have  forgot- 

-—'•••^••MMHpMMM^VwfvHVttM^ 

ten  the  name  of  the  boat  on  which  he  perished." 

In  another  letter  he  spoke  of  "Some  Verses" 

by  Helen  Hay,  his  daughter:     "There  is  the 

1  Yet  Geo.  C.  Eggleston  says  he  was  "prouder  of  that  very 
human  verse  than  of  anything  else  he  had  done."  Current 
Literature,  39:132.  See  note  2,  Chapter  II. 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

true  thing  that  I  should  have  liked  to  do  when 
I  was  young."  After  all,  the  Ballads  are  the 
effusions  of  youth,  and  not  associated  easily 
with  two  masterly  addresses  that  he  wrote  for 
delivery  in  London  forty  years  later,  on  Omar 
Khayyam  and  Sir  Walter  Scott.  They  are  the 
measure  of  what  the  years  and  labour  had  done 
for  him.  Yet  of  these  "two  literary  gems 
which  established  his  reputation  as  a  speech- 
maker  in  England"  he  wrote:  "You  never 
saw  a  people  so  willing  and  eager  to  be  bored  as 
these  blessed  John  Bulls." 

It  may  be  said  here  of  his  public  speaking 
that  he  was  not  fond  of  employing  his  gifts  in 
this  direction.  He  was  nervously  apprehensive 
for  days  before  an  important  occasion.  This 
anxiety  does  not  of  itself  always  insure  suc 
cess,  but  it  is  a  rare  speaker  who  does  well 
without  it;  and  often  his  prosperity  is  in  pro 
portion  to  his  fear — for  the  first  few  sentences. 
It  may  not  have  been  the  secret  of  Mr.  Hay's 
-C  "I  3-- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

achievements,  for  they  were  based  upon  knowl 
edge  of  what  should  be  said,  a  wide  acquaint 
ance  with  the  best  literature  of  every  kind,  and 
an  unfailing  discrimination  between  what  was 
fitting  and  what  was  not.  A  word  in  bad  taste, 
an  untimely  witticism,  an  inappropriate  anec 
dote,  above  all  a  story  that  was  near  spoiling 
from  age  or  vulgarity,  cannot  be  imagined  as 
proceeding  out  of  his  mouth,  because  it  could 
not  abide  in  his  heart  with  the  hospitality  which 
is  apt  to  entertain  a  story  broader  than  its 
point.  Often  what  is  called  "a  good  one"  has 
breadth  as  its  principal  dimension.  It  was 
never  so  in  his  speaking.  His  wit  was  not  of 
that  order.  So  too,  it  may  be  said  of  his  ora 
tory, — it  did  not  belong  to  the  first  half  of  the 
last  century,  the  billowy  and  thunderous  style. 
Instead,  it  was  quiet,  clear,  incisive,  humorous. 
It  was  also  reserved  for  needful  occasions. 
Still,  this  accomplishment  is  next  to  that  of  di 
plomacy  in  foreign  courts,  and  sometimes  the 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

public  address  at  a  state  banquet  is  more  effec 
tive  than  the  "note"  of  an  ambassador.  In 
choosing  him,  his  ability  to  conciliate  and  fa 
vourably  impress  the  public  is  always  taken  into 
account  in  the  appointment.  For  fifty  years 
the  government  has  been  fortunate  in  this  re 
spect,  in  no  instance  more  so  than  in  Mr.  Hay's. 
The  man  who  could  reveal  himself  in  semi-offi 
cial  attitude,  and  his  large-mindedness  and  cos 
mopolitan  spirit,  with  loyalty  to  his  own  coun 
try,  was  admired  by  men  of  every  nation. 

If  his  modesty  was  conspicuous  when 
obliged  by  correspondents  and  friends  to  re 
fer  to  his  literary  product,  it  was  still  more  ap 
parent  when  his  public  services  were  mentioned. 
These  sometimes  justified  defence — more  at 

the  time  than  since,  when  the  wisdom  of  his 

t  — - — 

policies  has  become  more^evident  than  in  the 
days  when  party  politics  and  personal  interests 
clouded  issues  of  vast  consequence.  But  it  was 
not  easy  to  extort  explanations.  Occasionally 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

blind  and  blundering  opposition  would  force 
out  a  plain  estimate  of  its  author's  folly,  but 
not  of  his  own  wisdom.  This  might  be  justi 
fied,  as  in  the  gospel,  by  its  children — the  re 
sults — but  not  by  its  possessor.  It  is  difficult 
to  imagine  the  great  Secretary  making  official 
use  of  the  first  personal  pronoun,  a  man  who 
abolished  the  antiquated  system  of  American 
diplomacy  and  introduced  a  new  order;  whose 
methods  surpassed  those  of  Bismarck  amd  his 
own  predecessors  in  Europe.  He  was  as  modest 
as  he  was  eminent.  He  did  not  need  to  sound 
his  own  praise.  History  will  take  care  of  that. 
From  what  has  just  been  said  it  will  be 
guessed  that  in  common  with  all  eminent  states 
men  he  did  not  escape  contemporary  criticism. 
It  sent  Daniel  Webster  to  an  untimely  grave, 
and  hastened  the  end  of  others  before  and  after. 
Possibly  in  the  scoring  that  the  Roosevelt  ad 
ministration  received  concerning  the  appropria 
tion  of  Colombia  the  Secretary  of  State's  share 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

of  blame  fell  more  disastrously  upon  him  than 
upon  his  chief,  whose  shoulders  are  broad  and 
his  cuticle  pachydermatous.  Apologists  will 
say  that  an  obstructive  principality,  like  the 
negro  half  a  century  ago,  had  no  rights  that  a 
white  man  was  bound  to  respect,  especially 
when  these  might  block  an  international  thor 
oughfare.  Therefore  it  was  no  crime  to  lay  out 
a  waterway,  as  a  town  would  a  street,  and  pay 
damages  later.  But  there  were  steps  in  this 
proceeding  that  were  condemned  on  abstract 
grounds  and  Mr.  Hay  received  his  part  of  the 
criticism. 

The  controversy  need  not  be  reviewed. 
Let  the  end  justify  the  measure, — also  let 
the  nation  adjust  any  rightful  claim.  It  was 
far-seeing  wisdom  that  removed  the  English 
impediment  which  stood  in  the  way  of  con 
structing  the  Panama  Canal ;  and  it  was  equally 
essential  that  a  lesser  obstacle  be  disposed  of 
if  inclined  to  delay  the  enterprise  of  world-wide 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

consequence.  Mr.  Hay  saw  this,  and  that 
reparation  was  by  no  means  impossible.  His 
accusers  saw  an  opportunity  to  annoy  him. 
How  well  they  succeeded  may  be  hidden  among 
the  causes  which  hastened  his  untimely  demise. 
The  worry  of  his  official  station  shortened  his 
life  more  than  his  work,  which  was  sufficiently 
burdensome.  In  1899  ne  wrote  from  Wash 
ington  about  a  literary  project:  "It  would  be 
only  a  few  hours'  work,  but  I  have  not  the 
two  or  three  hours  at  my  disposition,  and  do 
not  know  when  I  shall  have  them.  I  am 
worked  and  worried  almost  into  idiocy."  And 
the  next  year  he  wrote  a  publisher  about  an 
introduction  to  Irving' s  "Sketch  Book":  "I 
know  you  would  not  ask  me  to  do  it  if  you 
knew  the  state  of  cerebral  fatigue  in  which 
every  night  finds  me.  It  is  absolutely  impossi 
ble  for  me  to  pledge  myself  to  a  single  hour 
of  literary  work  while  I  am  here."  That  this 
sacrifice  of  letters  to  diplomacy  was  a  genuine 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

surrender  on  his  part  must  be  evident  to  any 
who  understands  the  promise  of  his  early  years 
and  the  achievement  of  the  later.  He  could 
not  be  unconscious  of  the  triumphs  of  his  diplo 
matic  career,  and  could  believe  that  his  name 
would  go  down  as  the  great  statesman  of  his 
age.  But  where  there  is  one  who  knows  this 
there  are  hundreds  who  have  read  his  "Ballads," 
"Castilian  Days,"  and  chapters  in  the  "Life  of 
Lincoln."  They  would  now  welcome  what 
more  he  might  have  done  if  he  had  not  been 
prevented  by  laborious  days  and  anxious 
nights,  and  would  have  valued  what  they  could 
understand  and  enjoy  above  the  higher  attain 
ment  and  the  vaster  importance  of  the  great 
emprises  beyond  their  care  and  comprehension. 
And  if  his  own  preferences  be  not  misunder 
stood,  John  Hay,  the  man  among  his  fellows, 
might  to-day  rather  be  remembered  for  some 
later  gem  of  verse  or  prose  than  for  some  stroke 
of  statecraft  by  which  the  nation  is  profiting. 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

These  are  so  many  that  it  may  be  regretted  for 
his  sake  and  ours  that  one  or  two  cannot  be 
exchanged  for  some  literary  treasure  whereby 
the  world  would  have  been  made  richer  and 
better.  The  only  consolation  is  that  other  pens 
can  keep  up  an  abundant  supply  of  reading, 
while  only  one  brain  in  a  century  can  lead  na 
tions  into  ways  of  pleasantness  and  paths  of 
peace.  It  is  the  noblest  and  largest  work  that 
a  talent  equal  to  it  can  accomplish,  and  the 
man  who  does  it  rises  above  his  associates  and 
his  age,  their  politics  and  their  wealth,  their 
poetry  and  their  prose. 

Therefore  the  statesman  could  afford  to 
leave  authorship  until  the  task  should  be  fin 
ished,  which  he  wished  to  drop  when  President 
McKinley  fell.  He  reluctantly  consented  to 
complete  the  broken  term  and  continued  after 
much  soliciting  into  another.  It  must  have 
been  with  diminishing  hope  that  he  should  take 
up  literary  work  once  more  when  he  felt  his 
•C1283- 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

strength  failing.  But  he  was  not  a  man  to 
complain  if  the  useful  made  the  agreeable  im 
possible.  He  was  serving  his  country  as  truly 
and  in  a  larger  way  than  in  the  field  of  let 
ters  or  on  the  battle  field.  Nor  did  he  seek 
the  still  higher  position  which  he  could  have 
filled  with  credit  to  himself  and  with  honour 
to  the  nation.  He  was  content  to  sacrifice 
himself  in  the  station  to  which  he  was  sum 
moned,  knowing  perhaps  that  no  other  public 
servant  could  do  for  the  country  what  he  was" 
born  to  do  and  qualifiedjbj  rare  experiences. 

To  accomplish  such  a  mission  to  his  country 
and  the  world  demands  one  or  two  qualities 
which  Mr.  Hay  possessed  that  must  not  be 
overlooked  among  elements  of  his  greatness. 
One  of  these  is  the  constructive  imagination. 
Almost  any  wise  man  can  see  the  present  con 
dition  of  things  and  make  the  best  of  the  situa 
tion.  It  is  only  one  in  a  thousand  who  dis 
cerns  with  prophetic  vision  the  better  state  that 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

might  be,  the  righting  of  ancient  wrong,  the 
maintenance  of  inherent  right,  the  upholding 
of  enduring  principles,  and  the  coming  of  the 
kingdom  of  righteousness  and  therefore  of  peace 
in  all  the  world.  This  great  peacemaker- 
through-justice  had  such  visions,  almost  poetic 
and  even  baseless  to  his  associates.  He  saw 
the  nations  as  a  family,  with  their  family  quar 
rels,  to  be  sure,  but  settling  them  without  fratri 
cide,  and  before  a  tribunal  august  and  authori 
tative  as  could  be  assembled  from  among  the 
wisest  and  best  of  the  earth. 

He  was  among  the  earliest  to  urge  such  a 
movement  away  from  barbarism  towards  a 
civilisation  higher  than  the  highest ;  for  his  own 
country  had  only  just  laid  down  its  brotherly 
swords,  drawn  in  defence  and  for  the  aboli 
tion  of  an  inherited  wrong  inflicted  upon  a  cap 
tive  race,  and  for  the  expulsion  of  further  tyr 
anny  in  the  Islands.  And  when  other  war- 
clouds  arose  on  distant  horizons  in  Europe  and 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

the  East  he  held  up  the  Sign  of  the  Son  of 
Man  before  the  powers  who  were  inclined  to  re 
spect  its  meaning.  When  they  observed  its 
spirit  it  was  to  their  honour  and  profit,  as  in 
China;  when  they  did  not,  it  was  Russia  and 
Japan.  But  it  was  always  the  principle  of  the 
divine  precept  that  he  maintained,  to  be  fol 
lowed  by  nations  as  by  persons,  to  do  as  they 
would  be  done'by  instead  of  as  they  could  be 
done  by.  How  much  he  contributed  toward 
making  this  rule  operative  is  seen  more  clearly 
as  the  years  wear  on.  What  could  be  discov 
ered  in  his  lifetime  is  a  part  of  his  record.  It 
will  grow  plainer  as  the  mists  of  the  morning 
clear  away,  the  morning  whose  dawn  he  intro 
duced  for  his  own  land  and  for  the  people  who 
had  been  sitting  in  darkness.  His  constructive 
imagination  saw  such  possibilities  as  when  great 
discoverers  find  an  unknown  continent,  an  un 
seen  planet,  an  unsuspected  ether.  Hejbes 
lievedjn- frgjnan  anrl  humane  possibilities:  his 
•C  'Si  3-- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

belief  was  the  ground  of  his  action,  and  both 
together  were  the  cause  of  his  success.  He 
imagined  with  a  prophet's  outlook  that  the  right 
sense  in  humanity  would  balance  the  wrong,  as 
one  continent  is  the  counterweight  of  another. 
To  find  the  better  consciousness  and  develop  it 
j  and  cultivate  it  was  the  large  endeavour  of  his 
•^s.  official  intercourse  with  men  and  nations.  His 
(^visions  were  not  all  visionary:  some  of  them 
were  realised  through  his  own  efforts  and  others 
through  the  good  that  lives  after  him  and  the 
works  that  follow  him.  Being  dead  he  speaks ; 
and  if  men  do  not  hear  and  obey  the  voice  the 
echo  prolonged  by  the  people  will  be  heard  in  its 
own  time. 

His  poetic  and  prophetic  vision  and  imag 
ination  were  not,  however,  the  only  cardinal 
features  of  his  statesmanship.  It  is  one  thing 
to  behold  or  to  construct  an  ideal,  another  to 
make  it  a  reality.  The  latter  distinguishes  the 
man  of  affairs  from  the  man  of  ideas;  the 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

founder  of  a  state  from  the  framer  of  Utopia 
or  the  Republic  of  Plato.  Rarely  are  the  two 
elements  combined  in  one  person,  and  the  abil 
ity  to  devise  and  execute  mingled  in  efficient 
proportion  and  balance.  It  was  Mr.  Hay's 
crowning  distinction  that  he  added  efficiency 
to  invention,  in  the  largest  significance  of  these 
essential  qualities,  and  in  the  most  difficult 
spheres  of  their  exercise.  He  had  to  deal  with 
petrified  traditions  and  ossified  dignitaries, 
abroad  and  at  home.  In  Asia,  Europe,  and 
America  he  found  hoary  idolatries  and  little 
iconoclasm.  The  breaker  of  images  had  no  en 
couragement  as  such;  the  reconstructor  of  ven 
erable  institutions  and  customs  no  precipitate 
welcome. 

How  then  did  he  accomplish  results  which 
were  at  first  considered  visionary  and  impossi 
ble^  By  what  for  the  lack  of  a  more  definite 
term  may  be  called  Decisive  Persuasion. 
First,  he  knew  what  he  wanted  done:  then  he 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

had  the  rarer  ability  to  make  others  willing  to 
co-operate  with  him.  He  disarmed  suspicion, 
kept  nothing  back,  was  so  frank  and  honest  that 
circumlocutory  diplomats  had  no  occasion  to 
darken  counsel  with  words  nor  misrepresent  for 
a  reason.  He  got  at  men  at  once.  They  un 
derstood  immediately  his  purpose;  it  was  rea 
sonable,  though  often  too  exalted  for  others, 
but  never  below  the  better  sentiment  of  per 
sonal  and  national  honour.  Appealing  to  this, 
directly  or  indirectly,  he  won  where  shrewd 
ness  or  cunning  or  greed  would  have  lost;  for 
old-world  diplomacy  is  a  game  which  its 
masters  are  trained  to  play  as  Mr.  Hay  was  not, 
according  to  their  accepted  methods.  His  own 
surprised  them,  and  based  as  these  methods 
were  upon  bed-rock  principles  they  transferred 
controversy  to  new  fields,  to  the  surprise  of 
some  and  confusion  of  others. 

What  he  said  of  American  diplomacy  is  em-^ 
phatically  true  of  himself:     "We  have  gener- 


1 

re  is 
t  its 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

ally  told  squarely  what  we  wanted,  announced 
early  in  the  negotiation  what  we  were  willing 
to  give,  and  allowed  the  other  side  to  accept  or 
reject  our  terms.  I  can  also  say  that  we  have 
been  met  by  the  representations  of  the  other 
side  in  the  same  spirit  of  frankness  and  sincerity. 
You  will  bear  me  out  in  saying  that  there 
nothing  like  straightforwardness  to  bege 
like."  The  same  may  be  said  of  honesty  and 
honour,  humanity  and  generosity.  But  in  ad 
dition  to  these  qualities  there  was  a  rare  gift 
of  persuasion  which  won  hearts  and  minds  by 
its  reasonableness,  its  grace,  its  humour  so  mov 
ing  that  men  supposed  they  were  following 
their  own  bent  and  unbiased  judgment  when 
they  were  unconsciously  following  his.  Not 
because  he  could  make  the  worse  appear  the 
better  reason,  but  because  his  own  inclination 
ran  with  what  was  right.  It  also  went  side  by 
side  with  godliness.  In  this  as  in  all  his  ways 
and  work  there  was  no  display  of  the  broad 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

phylactery  and  the  sounding  of  a  trumpet;  but 
throughout  his  writings,  his  life,  and  his  char 
acter  ran,  like  the  warp  of  a  fair  fabric,  the 
unbroken  threads  of  loyalty  to  divine  precepts, 
obedience  to  the  law  of  the  gospel,  and  the  vir 
tues  which  the  author  of  the  letters  to  the 
Corinthians  includes  in  his  definition  of  charity, 
both  negative  and  positive.  With  the  essen 
tial  belief  and  strong  faith  on  which  these  vir 
tues  rested  they  together  complete  the  manliness 
which  is  also  godliness.  It  is  a  pattern  of  man 
hood  to  be  honoured  and  imitated  in  its  private 
life,  its  social  converse,  and  its  public  transac 
tions.  It  is  a  personality  to  study,  an  example 
to  follow.  The  more  that  is  recalled,  restored, 
and  constructed  anew  as  new  material  is  discov 
ered  the  brighter  the  lesson  will  become  and  the 
wider  its  beneficent  influence  in  all  the  world. 
In  the  entrance  hall  of  the  edifice  which  beaj-s 
his  name  is  a  bronze  head  and  shoulders  of  John 
Hay  by  St.  GaudensL_  There  are  also  several 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

excellent  portrait  engravings  here  and  there  in 
various  magazines,  made  at  one  time  and  an 
other  from  the  youthful  days  before  the  war  to 
the  last  summer  at  The  Fells.  No  artist  would 
attempt  to  make  of  all  these  representations  a 
composite  picture  and  call  it  John  Hay.  Only 
one  feature  could  be  unchanged  throughout  all 
the  years  and  this  would  grow  old  in  wisdom 
and  dim  with  age.  It  has  been  called  the  light 
of  the  body  and  the  window  of  the  soul ;  but  to 
describe  it  is  not  to  portray  the  body  or  the 
soul,  the  mortal  and  the  immortal.  Still  less 
to  picture  other  features,  the  form,  and  the  fig 
ure.  But  whoever  has  seen  the  embodiment  of 
all,  the  totality  that  makes  up  the  personality, 
differing  from  every  other,  will  recall  certain 
definite  lines,  with  the  lights  and  shadows  which 
constitute  a  substance  to  the  vision  and  the 
memory.  Next  to  that  is  the  report  of  what 
others  have  seen,  whose  impression  is  often 
like  that  of  a  figure  in  the  distance  or  the  dusk. 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

What  then  are  the  shadowy  outlines  which 
can  be  recalled  from  the  distance  of  a  decade 
in  the  vanishing  years?  A  figure  not  towering 
but  with  the  commanding  air  with  which  com 
pensating  Nature  has  endowed  certain  men 
who  like  Napoleon  have  rearranged  the  boun 
daries  of  States  and  changed  their  politics  and 
policies.  As  was  said  of  the  little  conqueror, 
there  were  times  when  these  men  seemed  as 
high  as  a  mountain.  They  became  spectres  of 
the  Brocken  in  the  atmosphere  which  sur 
rounded  them  when  the  rare  occasion  came  and 
bewildering  mists  arose  from  the  valley.  They 
were  not  trifled  with ;  they  became  kings  of  men 
and  masters  of  perplexing  situations.  Yet  Mr. 
Hay  was  not  repelling  nor  unapproachable  by 
reason  of  his  encompassing  dignity.  On  the 
contrary,  his  cordial  greeting  was  extended  to 
every  deserving  person  and  his  sympathetic  fel 
lowship  to  the  friends  who  won  his  heart.  Still 
he  was  naturally  reserved,  a  lover  of  quiet  in 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

his  happiest  of  homes,  which  with  a  few  inti 
mate  friends  made  that  inner  circle  where  one 
reveals  more  than  to  the  frequenters  of  the 
office  or  the  throng  on  the  street. 

With  the  frontispiece  portrait  before  the 
reader  there  will  be  no  need  of  facial  analysis 
and  description.  The  lines  of  studious  thought 
in  the  full  forehead  were  intensified  possibly  by 
suffering  in  the  last  years,  and  the  look  of  the 
eyes  is  toward  problems  of  doubt  and  difficulty, 
but  its  steadiness  betokens  decision  and  fixity 
of  purpose.  Men  would  know  that  they  were 
not  dealing  with  a  reed  shaken  by  the  wind.  He 
was  as  incorruptible  as  a  statue  of  Justice. 
Besides  he  could  show  them  the  beneficent  path 
of  unselfish  and  generous  dealing  with  a  con 
quered  country  and  the  better  way  than  war. 
Peace  must  be  through  righteousness  or  it  was 
noTasting  peace]  None  but  Melchizedek  could 
be  king  of  Salem.  Then  these  qualities  of  heart 
and  soul  were  raised  to  exalted  power  by  the 
-C  139  > 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

mind  that  directed  them  into  the  best  and  broad 
est  channels.  His  thoughts  were  high,  his  de 
signs  large,  his  outlook  for  the  future  of  his 
country  and  the  world  commanding.  His  feet 
were  upon  the  mountains  bringing  tidings  of 
peace.  He  saw  the  warring  nations  beginning 
to  fulfil  the  prophecy  of  the  swords  and  spears, 
the  ploughs  and  pruning  hooks.  He  helped  to 
hasten  the  dawn  of  a  day  on  which  the  sun  is 
already  ascending  and  the  hopeful  hours  sweep 
ing  upward.  When  its  noon  arrives  the  world 
will  not  forget  who  called  to  it  out  of  the  mists 
of  the  morning,  "What  doth  the  Lord  require 
of  thee  but  to  do  justly  and  love  mercy  and 
walk  humbly  with  thy  God."  2 

2  This  was  written  before  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war. 
Possibly  John  Hay  might  not  have  been  utterly  cast  down  by 
it  nor  have  lost  his  faith  in  the  human  kind.  Instead,  he 
might  have  seen  in  the  tempest  a  storm  that  shall  clear  the 
air  of  pestilential  vapors  and  hasten  the  coming  of  better 
kingdoms  built  upon  foundations  more  permanent  through 
the  corrected  sense  of  the  nations.  He  might  also  have  re 
garded  this  turmoil  and  madness  as  the  final  flaring  up  of 
a  blaze  from  falling  brands,  to  be  covered  forever  with 
penitential  ashes  and  quenched  with  bitter  tears. 


Impressions  and  Conclusions 

All  in  all  John  Hay's  name  is  the  symbol 
of  what  is  best  in  personal  character,  noblest 
in  official  station,  and  highest  in  national  pol 
ity.  Modest  himself^  others  wejre _ready  to 
pu;sise_Jtiiirh_  Retiring,  his  fellows  sought  his 
company.  Reserved,  his  sympathies  went  out 
to  the  ends  of  the  world.  Loyal  to  his  own 
land  he  remembered  that  it  did  not  own  the 
earth,  and  that  other  people  loved  their  coun^ 
try.  In  letters  too  his  verse  was  the  flower  of 
fancy  springing  from  the  warmth  of  his  heart; 
his  Iberian  sketches  were  flooded  with  the  sun 
set  of  departing  glory;  his  novel  has  its  les 
son  to  striving  men ;  his  biography  is  worthy  the 
noble  life  which  had  shaped  his  own.  There 
fore  it  is  fitting  that  his  monument  should  be 
the  repository  of  poetry  and  history,  of  travel 
and  of  story,  fit  is  well  also  that  at  the  en 
trance  his  face  should  greet  every  guest,  still 
speaking  to  each  of  the  highest  art — Expres 
sion;  of  the  courtesy  which  is  the  best  man- 


John  Hay,  Author  and  Statesman 

ner;  of  diligence  in  business;  of  uprightness, 
in  lif ej  of  fidelity  in  station;  of  justice  in  per 
plexity;  of  good- will  to  all  mankind. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Adams,  Henry,  Hay's  neigh 
bour  and  friend,  116. 

Address  on  Omar  Khayyam 
and  Walter  Scott,  121. 

Alaskan  boundary  settlement, 

99- 
Ambassador  to   Court  of   St. 

James,    75;     definitions    of 

the  title,  77. 
Ambassadors    of    the    United 

States     to     Great     Britain 

preceding   Hay,    83. 
Ancestry     of     John     Milton 

Hay,  2,  5. 

Antislavery  influences,  7. 
Angell,  James  B.,  quoted,  19, 

108. 

Appearance,  youthful,  8. 
Authorship,  128,  129;  attrac 
tion  of,  72. 

Balboa    on    the    Isthmus    of 

Darien,  92. 
"Ballads"       and       "Castilian 

Days,"  127. 
Birthplace,  3. 
Boxer  outbreak,  90. 
"Breadwinners  The,"  70. 
British    attitude    in    Spanish 

war,  75. 

-c 


Brown  University,  10,  n. 
Burial  services,  105. 

"Castilian  Days,"  43. 
Century,  Life  of  Lincoln   in, 

65. 
Cervantes    and    "Don    Quix 

ote,"  48- 
Characteristics,       given       by 

Hay's    classmates^  16,-  17," 

18.  _ 

China,  131;  and  tKTowei 

86,  88. 
Chinese   occupations   and   re 

ligion,   90;    protest,   92. 
Classmates,  Hay's,  21. 
Class     poem,     14;     Howell's 

estimate  of,  15. 
Clayton-Bui  wer     and     Hay- 

Pauncefote  treaties,   94. 
Collaboration    with    Nicolay, 

66,  67. 
Companionship,    value   of    to 

Hay,  39- 

Concordia  College,  9. 
Criticism   by  the   baser   sort, 
113;  literary,  71;  of  Pana 

ma    negotiations,  95. 

Death,     Hay's     at     Sunapee, 
104. 


H5 


Index 


Degrees  conferred,  22. 

Diplomacy,  61 ;  call  of  to 
Hay,  72;  American  re 
formed  by  Hay,  134; 
change  of  methods  in,  119, 
124;  congressional  estimate 
of,  76;  Hay's,  83;  diplo 
macy  vs.  duplicity,  89. 

Douglas,   Stephen  A.,  24. 

Ellsworth,    Hay's   tribute    to, 

1 6,  70.  ^ 
English     interest     in     Hay's 

early  verse,  27. 
Evarts,  W.  M.,  59,  60. 
Executive  ability,  Hay's,  133. 

Faunce,  President,  address  at 
dedication  of  library,  108. 

Foreign  policy  of  United 
States,  79 ;  residence,  ad 
vantages  of  to  Hay,  112. 

Garfield,  James  A.,  60,  61. 

Germany  and  Samoan  Is 
lands,  100. 

Golden  Rule  policy,  101. 

Greeley  as  an  editor,  39; 
conference  at  Niagara,  37; 
nomination  for  the  presi 
dency,  57. 

Harte,  Bret,  his  verse,  27. 

Hay,  Adelbert  Stone,  101. 

Hay  family,  the,  4;  John  in 
five  generations,  4;  Helen, 
her  poems,  120;  Mrs.  Hay, 
58;  Milton  Hay,  9,  23. 


Hay-Pauncefote  treaty,  96. 

Hay's  and  Harte's  ballads, 
28. 

Hay's   health   declining,   103. 

Hay's  humour,   50,   117,    118. 

Hay,  John  M.,  synopsis  of 
career:  schools  and  in 
structors,  7 ;  acquisition 
and  retention,  8;  minis 
terial  inclinations,  10,  18; 
Baptist  and  Presbyterian 
influences,  10;  enters 
Brown  University,  n; 
Theta  Delta  Chi  Frater 
nity,  ii ;  Faculty  in  1855, 
12;  Hay's  absorptive  and 
creative  work,  14;  literary 
promise,  14;  class  poet,  14; 
scholarship,  17 ;  character 
istics  and  appearance,  18; 
leader  in  English  litera 
ture  and  composition,  19; 
vocabulary  and  translation, 
20;  classmates,  21;  degrees 
conferred,  22 ;  formative 
influences,  23  ;  law  studies, 
23 ;  association  with  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  24 ;  cam 
paigns  for,  24;  is  taken  by 
him  as  assistant  secretary, 
25 ;  poet  of  river  and 
plain,  25;  "Pike  County 
Ballads,"  26;  English  in 
terest  in,  27;  Hay  and 
Harte,  28,  29,  30;  later 
poems,  30;  life  in  the 
White  House  and  Wash 
ington,  31;  association 


Index 


with  Lincoln,  33  ;  longings 
for  home,  34;  labors  as 
secretary,  35;  responsibili 
ties  in  the  field,  36;  made 
colonel  on  Hunter's  staff, 
and  assistant  adjutant  gen 
eral,  36;  Lincoln's  envoy  to 
Niagara  conference,  36;  its 
result,  37  ;  Seward  recog 
nises  Hay's  worth,  38;  of 
fers  him  place  in  Paris 
Legation,  38;  Lincoln's  as 
sassination,  38;  value  to 
Hay  of  association  with  the 
President,  39;  life  in  Le 
gation,  40;  nominated  as 
minister  to  Sweden,  40; 
charge  d'affaires  at  Vi 
enna,  40;  life  in  Madrid, 
42;  "Castilian  Days,"  43; 
Spanish  customs,  religion, 
and  politics,  44-52;  re 
turn  to  New  York,  54; 
intending  to  practise  law 
in  Illinois,  54;  writes  a 
leader  for  the  Tribune,  55; 
is  diverted  from  law  to 
journalism,  55;  on  edito 
rial  staff,  55  ;  opportunities 
and  their  value,  57  ;  rec 
ognition  as  a  writer,  58; 
marriage,  58  ;  political 
friends,  59  ;  confidential 
adviser,  60  ;  diplomatic 
recognition,  61  ;  Editor-in- 
chief,  62;  Life  of  Lincoln 
planned,  63  ;  collaboration 
with  Nicolay,  64;  pub- 


H7 


lished  in  Century;  authors' 
preface,  65;  material,  66; 
history  and  biography,  67; 
a  classic,  68 ;  consensus  of 
criticism,  69 ;  "Breadwin 
ners"  and  literary  ventures, 
70;  the  call  of  Letters  and 
Diplomacy,  71 ;  apprentice 
ship  in  both,  72 ;  Demo 
cratic  administrations,  72, 
73 ;  diplomatic  prospects, 
74;  London  Embassy,  75; 
cordial  reception  at,  76; 
definitions  of  diplomacy, 
77 ;  primitive  forms  of,  78 ; 
explaining  a  new  Ameri 
can  policy,  80;  diligence  in 
business,  81 ;  personal  in 
fluence,  82 ;  secures  non 
interference  of  Europe,  82; 
wins  distinction  in  diplo 
macy,  83.  Secretary  of 
State,  84;  dealing  with 
Spain,  85;  with  Russia  and 
Germany  in  China,  86; 
and  their  diplomats,  87; 
dissolves  confederacy,  88 ; 
two-fold  object,  89;  remis 
sion  of  indemnity,  90;  se 
cures  the  "open  door,"  91 ; 
masters  the  situation,  92; 
Isthmian  difficulties,  93 ; 
Panama  Canal,  94;  nego 
tiations  criticised,  95 ;  Hay- 
Pauncefote  treaty  drawn 
up,  96;  results,  97;  hu 
mane  features  of  treaties, 
98 ;  Turkish  procrastina- 

3- 


Index 


tion,  99;  Alaskan  bound 
ary  negotiation,  100;  la 
borious  service,  101 ;  death 
of  his  son,  101 ;  health  af 
fected,  102 ;  continues 
work,  103;  death,  104.; 
burial  and  services,  105 ; 
tributes,  106,  107;  Memo 
rial  Library,  108 ;  further 
tributes,  108 ;  inscription 
on  tablet,  no. 

Impressions,  in;  per 
sonality,  in;  a  gentleman 
always,  112;  advantages 
of  residence  abroad,  112; 
democratic  criticism,  113; 
annoyances  of  position, 
113;  politeness  in,  114; 
kindness  to  journalists, 
115;  Roosevelt's  tribute, 
115;  charity  and  patience 
like  Lincoln's,  116;  hu 
mour,  117;  need  of,  118; 
change  of  diplomatic 
methods,  119;  modesty, 
120;  public  speaking,  121; 
its  quality,  122;  and  value, 
123 ;  absence  of  egotism, 
124;  criticism  of  Colombia 
appropriation,  124;  justi 
fication  of,  125;  worries 
of,  126 ;  diplomatic  tri 
umphs,  127;  as  a  rr.an  of 
letters,  128 ;  statesmanship, 
129;  his  constructive  im 
agination,  129 ;  as  a  peace 
maker,  130;  faith  in  possi 
bilities,  131;  executive  abil- 

-Ci 


48 


ity>  133  >  decisive  persua 
sion,  133;  reformation  of 
diplomacy,  134;  straight 
forwardness,  135;  manly 
virtues,  136;  portraits,  137; 
traditions  and  impressions, 
138;  reserve,  139;  stability, 
139;  commanding  vision, 
140;  summary,  141. 

Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  60. 

Heredity,  6. 

Humane  features  of  Hay's 
policy,  98. 

Hunter,  General,  36. 

Imagination,   Hay's  construc 

tive,  129,  131. 
Impressions  and  memories  of 

Hay,  138. 
Indemnity,        remission        of 

Chinese,  91. 
Indiana  Monitor,  4. 
Isthmus  of  Darien  and  Philip 

II,  93- 

Johnson,   Andrew,  40. 
Journalism,  Hay's  opinion  of, 

63- 
Journalists,    his    kindness    to, 

115. 
"Junius,"  76. 

King,  Dr.  A.  W.,  quoted,  5. 
Koopman,       Professor,       ad 

dress    at   dedication    of    li 

brary,    109. 

Legations,  Secretary  of, 
Paris,  39;  Vienna,  40; 
Madrid,  42. 


Index 


Leonard,  David  A.,  4. 

Liars  a  bane  to  Hay,   114. 

Library,  the  Hay  Memorial, 
108. 

"Life  of  Lincoln,"  63,  66,  71. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  23 ;  his 
life  at  the  Capitol,  33 ;  his 
death,  39. 

Lincoln  and  Herndon's  of 
fice,  23. 

Lincoln's    influence    on    Hay, 

39- 
Lincoln,  Robert,   38. 

McKinley,   William,   60,   82; 

tribute  to  Hay,  112. 
Madrid,    Hay   in,,   42. 
Marriage,   58. 
Milton,   Hay's  middle   name, 

dropped,  21. 

Nicolay,  John,  25,   64. 
Norris,  W.  E.,  quoted,  8,  17. 

Occident  and  Orient,   91. 
Open  door  policy,   91. 
Oratorical    gifts,    121 ;    value 
to  an  ambassador,   123. 

Panama   Canal,  93,   125. 
Paris  Legation,  39. 
Peace,   foundations   of,    139. 
Peacemaker,  Hay  as  a,  130. 
Personality,   Hay's,   75,   112. 
Persuasive    decision,    134. 
Philip   Francis,   Sir,   76. 
"Pike     County     Ballads,"     8, 

26. 
Pittsfield  Free  Press,  25. 


Poems  of  war  time  and  later, 
30;  Hay's  opinion  of  his 
own,  120. 

Portraits,  137,  139. 

Position,   annoyances  of,   114. 

Prophetic    outlook,    102. 

Reid,  Whitelaw,   54,  59. 

Roosevelt,  T.,  102;  his  ad 
ministration  and  Colom 
bia,  124;  tribute  to  Hay, 
115. 

Root,  Elihu,  at  dedication  of 
library,  109. 

Russia  and  Japan,  131;  in 
China,  85. 

Russo-Japanese  war,  98. 

Schools,    Hay's   early,   78. 

Sears,  Barnas,  President  of 
Brown  University,  12. 

Secretary  of  Legations,  Hay 
as,  39,  40,  42. 

Secretary  of  State,  as,  72,  84. 

Senate's  obstructive  criticism, 
96. 

Seward's  recognition  of 
Hay's  worth,  38. 

Slavery  in  Illinois,  7. 

Spain  after  the  war,  84;  leg 
islation  in,  50;  its  customs, 
44>  48  J  government  and 
people,  52;  troubles,  79, 
82. 

Spanish  war,  75. 

Spectator,  London,  on  Hay, 
107. 

Springfield,    Illinois,    9. 


Index 


Stanton,    Secretary    of    War, 

36. 
Statesmanship,     Hay's,     127, 

128,    129. 

Stevens,   S.   W.,   18,   104. 
Stone,    Amasa,    58. 
"Stirrup  Cup,  The,"  104. 
Summary  of  qualities,  141. 
Sunapee   Lake,    104. 


Thomson,   J.   D.,   9. 
Tilden,    S.   J.,   60,    61. 
Times,  the  London,  on  Hay, 

107. 

Transylvania   College,    3. 
Treaties      and      agreements, 

fifty-eight    made    by    Hay, 

100. 
Tribune,  the  New  York,   56, 

62,   63. 
Tributes    to    Hay,    106,    107, 

108. 
Turkey,    dealings   with,    98. 


Twain,  Mark,  on  Hay's  Bal 
lads,  28,  29. 

Vienna,  Hay  charge  d'af 
faires  at,  40;  as  a  diplo 
matic  theatre,  41. 

Virtues,  Hay's  diplomatic 
and  manly,  135. 

Vision,  his  commanding,  140. 

Warsaw,  111.,  Hay's  home  in 
boyhood,  46 ;  his  love  for, 

33- 

Washington,  his  life  in,  32; 
and  opportunities,  112. 

Webster,  Daniel,  hurt  by 
criticism,  124. 

Western   influences,   6. 

Wolton,  Sir  Henry,  defini 
tion  of  ambassador,  77. 

Writer  and  editor,  Hay  as 
a,  58. 

Yale  University,  22,  102. 


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